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There is a show on Henry Danger, and they are talking about rights. Strange to think about the philosophers who pondered government—and my love in college for that book from Rousseau about man out of nature, and Mumford’s Culture of Cities.
Other animals and insects build communities and cities. They have as much in common with us as we have our great differences with all other animals. But still, this difference makes us curious—perhaps forever restless and wandering.
Would it ever have dawned on some of our early founding fathers to play with pronouns? Likely yes, is my guess. There really is little that is new, given the many people, the many years. But somewhere, something was lost during our evolution. Some piece seems to have been changed or modified.
No way this is nature.
Nature does not have exceptions like this—or does it?
Let’s assume the opposite of that position. Nature does create one-offs, and we are the outcome of that. Somehow our evolution made our minds different than other creatures. But although it’s the same hardware, it seems the software was re-written. Or some piece was unlocked.
Even through dissecting DNA and our analysis of the body, nothing and no one can detect or explain what makes us human the way we are—with our sounds and language, emotions and tools, and views of time—developing both past and present—and introducing reflection, perception, consciousness, and the ability to wonder, build, create, make hypotheses… anything to remove ourselves from the present moment.
Perhaps that was the apple from the Garden of Eden fable?
But still—how does an animal come out of the state of the present moment? Given all the species and years, it doesn’t seem to happen by chance or choice. And also, it isn’t something we’ve figured out how to pass on or engineer. Even the machinations of nature could not bring this change, and it vexes me—where did it come from?
I don’t believe the human recollection for sure, but the stories and history point to something. And yet the members of our species who existed before what we call “time” or “technology” could read—before there was technology or toolmaking—had something…
But also, what if—
…lost that thought.
I don’t know what the what-if is.
Right: what if we also had whatever changed our species through time… and then it was reset? By nature, trying to re-establish her violent order? And the seeming charm of planetary changes and space reactions in our chemical universe?
But as a species, we’ve persevered. Ourselves. Other animals. Extinction. And also the planet itself—possibly resetting the clock and geologic notes of our history.
So let’s say we are the non-animal. The different and blended one.
What is it—what technology or change—could have made us this way? Nothing makes sense. And there is evidence of things being lost and repeated, and the records at the edge of our timekeeping—our leftover archeology and technology, our art and creation—can only go so far back.
Going back 10–15,000 years may be too much. A complete erasure of our culture.
Does that mean the shift was recent?
Unless, like other things, there have also been cycles of this change.
Given our knowledge of the planetary record, quite a few changes have already happened.
And how can we explain much which is so long back and far away? It may have taken 8,000 years after the last ice age for us to get back to remembering that reset and what had happened.
Hard to say when the change happened or how—or how long that seed took to sprout, change, and evolve.
Was it sudden?
Our little golden is such a sweet and good companion. She is very loving and mild-mannered. That’s about all it takes to get me writing these days. Sometimes writing is easier than anything else I want to do. I can tell my internal energy current wants to go out rather than take in at times like these—and this is an easy and adequate way.
Freehand writing is like skiing, compared to the snowshoeing-type experience of, say, keeping a day log.
It’s a true mining operation—constantly churning over and plowing new ground, mixing with old dirt. Seeing what themes emerge and what might find its way onto my page.
As much as this is my stream of consciousness, it’s also imbued with my creativity. And my being is influenced by my environment.
But why this particular fascination—man out of nature?
And the timing of history in general, and the sense that something is amiss. There is no way this is all natural or makes any sense.
Kids are kids—not too different from each other, just like we all once were. And sometimes what we eat or watch or how we are creates some of the energies and behaviors in us.
Why is there any question?
What was the question?
Who was asking what?
Where were we now?
Let’s start from the beginning.
How wrong are we when we talk about the beginning of civilization?
And when do we consider civilization to have begun? Sometime before hunter-gatherer times?
Are other animals civilized?
What does that word even mean?
Something beyond family?
Is tribal still within nature?
Nature also has its own characters, addicts, and perversions. That is not unique to humans or civilizations.
Perhaps that is why we can see ourselves so easily in other animals—our natural counterpart.
But why are we seemingly, somehow different… and set free?
I could wrack my mind for a lifetime seeking some answers to this question. And why—I don’t know—but it’s always interested me and been part of my interest in the theological and the mystical.
Ah, the mystical.
The beautiful.
The all-everything super galactic.
Rocket Rocker Man!
He rocks his chair and can travel to the moon.
And then, on the moon, he collects green cheese.
This cheese is highly prized in Paris, New York, and Quebec. It is soft and spongy and comes from moonspores, which are said to give you longevity.
People live to about 150 and talk of being able to increase that—having moon cheese that can be more easily mined or grown on Earth. Although no successful attempts have worked yet, it is still a very lucrative trade.