There’s an ancient Chinese poem (it does seem like there are a lot of those) that runs something like this:

Knowing I would live 3 Centuries at least,

I find myself at 80, dying;

Still only a child at heart.

What’s this got to do with art? Patience, Grasshopper…..

Once again – surprise, surprise -- I’m thinking about this Being-Aliveness-Manifested-In-Human-Form Thing, especially with reference to Sapience (a rarely used 14th-century word providing more of what I’m reaching to articulate than ‘Sentience.’ And, more yet — especially with respect to my existence as a ‘Self’ (Buddhist pronouncements, notwithstanding, about that being an illusion).

I see two absolutely impossibly unlikely scenarios :

o ONE POSSIBILITY — I/ We are astonishing biological anomalies, appearing as one-offs; that is, as single, fleeting instances of consciousness.

13.8 billion years to form this current moment in the universe.
3.7 billion years from the initiation of life on earth.
Around 300,000 years from human forms initially appearing
150,000 – 200,000 years for language to emerge
And then there are the social patterns needing to aglomerate
Here I am, right now, 77 years old.
That I exist in this form, in this context, right now, is utterly, absurdly, improbably, impossibly unlikely. It’s the opposite of inevitably.
YET, HERE I AM, WRITING THIS AND PAINTING THAT. And the birds are making bird noises outside my Studio.
And, in a short while, as my biological systems break down, I will cease to exist.
And shortly thereafter, so will humankind. (That’s a different kind of unnecessarily unlikely outcome of sheer failure to make optimal use of our capacities. What a waste).

o A SECOND POSSIBILITY — I am (we are), at some deeper, invisible level (located slightly beyond the physical somewhere into the liminal), on-going beings, with iterative forms of existing. This is even more astonishing of a conceptualization in this im-probabilistic universe — at least to me — than the first scenario.

Perhaps: I’m(we’re) a reincarnation or a simulation or an extension of some ephemerality well outside my consciously aware experience, spawning entities having a designated set of assignments to explore to learn more and develop during each one’s tenure in this being-alive-as-a-human state.
To underscore: This is even more patently, impossibly absurdly unlikely than the earlier impossible unlikelihood of my existing as a temporary biological being.. As in: Fully residing in some other side beyond impossible.
Are the sunflower seeds and the birds outside my window eating them similarly developing entities working their way along the incarnation spectrum of life?
As alluded to, above, biological forms consist of complex chemical and electrical systems . When such a system breaks down, the complex systemic interactions cease as well. Welcome ghosts?
But this 2nd-ImPossibility Concept suggests some evanescent (on this plane)quality or process or beingness continues forward after death to return, recycled for further refinement or, alternatively, becomes relocated to another realm out in some there.

Having filed this piece away for a while and having spent time watching our current social structure fray (pick a thread, any thread:: political, administrative, corporate, ecological, medical, social, .....)—— I’m now left thinking about how we humans have generated the informational infrastructure for both these ideas: The science, on the one hand, and the various religious or spiritual versions on the other.

One — the scientific viewpoint — aims for empirical groundedness, even if it’s subject to faulty theoretical structures and rigid paradigm alliances and the shifts and blunders to which we humans are prone. Well, and to the whims of who is doing the funding. Even with its flaws, this orientation has generated effective interventions to address diseases and to develop the technologies underpinning our computers. I’m using this source to look up the bits of information I listed in the opening of this document. Unfortunately, it seems like we — collectively — are effectively dismantling that pathway to information. You know, like when in 1854, Dr. Snow had the pump handle on Broad Street removed, successfully curtailing a cholera outbreak Then, of course, some inconvenienced character with power had it reinstalled.

We may be clever, but we are very slow to learn.

And — then, the Spiritual angle — probably goes back to the beginning of meaning-making, when versions of our species attributed outcomes to ethereal presences in trees and volcanos and storm clouds, and further added the idea of their requiring appeasements when circumstances made life challenging. Then, after a bit, we consolidated them into gods and goddesses (a Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion ethos?)who were further consolidated so we could be guided by mythical imperatives and promises of rewards and punishments in an afterlife. The resulting traditions have led to unimaginable (though straightforwardly unleashed) suffering from institutionalization of shame and guilt to sweeping wars to prove whose deity was superior.

300,000 years and we still don’t have answers for Rodney King’s, “Why can’t we all just get along.” And, now, at the edge of collapse, we’re currently dismantling our world in the service of spurious theories of progress.

We really aren’t very smart, it seems, if intelligence entails learning from past mistakes to improve future performance.

Kinda sad, really.

It certainly has shaken my belief in that second option that we’ve collectively constructed over the millennia.

But who knows.

.................................

Whatever the ultimate foundational complexities of our existential reality, at a minimum, it’s wondrous we each get to exist and perceive and reflect and create in those ways we can muster.

And, though some people, in some designated realms, have developed remarkable proficiencies, isn’t it simply remarkable we each get to offer our own gestures to our silent Universe.

..........................

It’s sunny. The birds are doing their thing. I have a very large piece of paper requesting I add color. So........

Whatever else, I’ll offer my personal appreciative gestures to our Universe from my little glassed-in Studio sanctuary – All as a nod of gratitude and while, keeping my head down, in the face of the seeming futility of my search for any thoughtful exchange, I’ll plow ahead.

At least I sense an awful lot of colors requesting conversations.

Just a Few Thoughts in 2025

Looking Into the Future from Independence Day 2022