MY FAITH IS UNSHAKABLE

In my life there have been three "awakenings." These were each a different insight that totally transformed the way I see life. The first was to the simple fact of being, the second was to the fallibility of intellectual knowledge and the third was to all-encompassing nature. With the third, I realized that all that happens is nature. This includes human insanity. This includes everything. The fact that we are a species with big brains that uses language to communicate and to attempt to understand life means that we can imagine many things that have no objective reality. We can think that we are separate from life. Of course nothing could be farther from the truth. But even the fact that we're able to weave these unreal conceptual models is a product of nature and evolution. We're just another species with some pretty amazing abilities.

Some of my friends give in to despair. They see what our species is doing to this planet and feel like everything has gone wrong. I like to remind them that we are nature too. We're just another animal working out it's destiny. I hope that we will have a place on Earth for a long time. I hope that we'll wake up en masse to the fact of our connection to and dependence on the environment. I hope that we'll quit destroying ecosystems and our fellow earthlings. I will work towards this awakening. That being said, I'm not holding my breath.