22 January 2018: To Be or Not to Be

To be or not to be. That is the question.

 William Shakespeare

All righty, then. Let’s take on the big one: Life. Each of us has at least one or two or more burning questions that we are likely to spend a lifetime attempting to answer. Predictably, these questions fall into one of two categories: life and death. Leaving death to a future post, this entry focuses on where each of us is living at this moment; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this post.

Such a gigantic subject, such as life, requires some structure even to begin to answer. Who, what, when, where, and why are all questions applicable to this subject, so for our purposes, we will use these categories for our explorations of the present inquiry. This approach will give us the proverbial advantage of eating the elephant, one piece at a time. Even though the topic is titanic, it is appropriate for an almanac entry. Definition of almanac: a handbook, typically published annually, containing information of general interest or on a sport or pastime. The difference here is that “annually” becomes billions of years.  Plus, what subject could be of greater relevance than “general interest” in the “pastime” of life. To further narrow the scope of our investigation, we will hold the definition of “life” to human beings. I hate to do that with so many other worthy, sentient beings who live along side us; however, a taxonomy of all sentients is unmanageable in this format.

WHEN & WHERE: We can make relatively short work of the “when” and the “where.” Beginning with “when,” the latest conjectures place the appearance of the precursors of life at about 4 billion years ago when the earth was just freshly formed and comets and asteroids were common sights – if there had been eyes to see. Hints of life to come appeared around volcanic vents. Our oldest living ancestor found to date appears to be about 540 million years old. This early “bird” was a primal deuterostome, an ancient predecessor of animals. The deuterostome looks like a very large-mouthed worm with an array of acne around its oral opening. Although we like to think that life began with us humans, we are latecomers on the scene. The recent evidence points to around 350,000 years ago, about .004% of the earth’s life. So, that’s the “when” of life and when humanoids arrived in the earthly arena.

WHERE: Scientists are becoming more confident about the “where.” Our friend the deuterostome, was found in its fossil form in China.  But our species, most scientists agree, has Africa as its birthplace – the whole continent, it would appear. Somewhere around 220,000 years ago, current evidence of humanoid habitation appeared in Europe when it would seem Neanderthals “hooked up” with another humanoid branch called Denisovans. The next population popped up in East Asia, and after that Australia. For the record, humanoids migrated to North America about 24,000 years ago, and to South America in the neighborhood of 14,500 to 18,500 before the present. We could go into by what means this diaspora took place, but we won’t.

WHO & WHAT: Next, we come to the “who” and “what,” which can be answered in unison, if we don’t let philosophical concerns distract us.  First and foremost, a human being is an animal. Yes, an animal capable of walking upright, with the capacity for understandable speech (at least to us), and an unusually developed mental capacity. Biologically, in the molecular view, we are a composite of water, protein, connective tissue, fats, bones, and DNA. However, in our hubris, these are not very satisfying definitions. For that we must turn to the great writers. Here are a few of Shakespeare’s comments on the subject. First, when he was in a bad mood.

“We are such stuff as dreams are made of and our little life is rounded with sleep.”

“This life . . . is but a walking shadow; a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”

When he was in a better mood, the bard claims, “What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty. In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals.”

Suit yourself; pick A, B, or C, or none of the above. We’ll leave this part of the topic by saying there are myriad other interpretations, from the scientific to the poetic.

WHY: The biggy in this inventory of the lives of human beings is the question, “why?” Oh, Oh. We, who think we are special, spend a great deal of time on this one, for it takes us into the realm of meaning, specifically, the perennial question, “What is the meaning of life.” Somewhere, I think it was at St. John’s Abbey, I heard the following statement: “Man is the only creature condemned to meaning.” Indeed, we seem to be the only sentient beings with a brain large and complex enough to explore the question of meaning, along with our obsession with death.

What is the significance of life? That is a slightly different form of the question of meaning. We are born, we die, and we have something in between. The “in between” is of most concern because it is where we actually live during the time we have. We could spend our time eating, sleeping, working, defecating, and urinating, but a large portion of us look to achieve something more noteworthy, even if it is only running roughshod over other life forms and our planet in our attempt to fulfill our desires, longings, and perceived needs. Again, our writers have something to say. George Herbert says, “Life is half spend before we know what it is.” Jane Austen claims, “Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”

We can get a bit farther if we divide our concerns into two groups: those of us who look for meaning in the “between” stage, our present life, and people who find their significance in the past or future: heaven, rebirth, hope for a divine reward, or fear of eternal punishment. Now, I need to ask a controversial question. Since no one has ever entered heaven or hell, or been reborn, while still living, conjectures about what happened before our present life and what is to come after death lead to the question: Can such concepts and beliefs be proven as real? Putting faith aside, all evidence points to “no.” Therefore, does it make sense to use something unproveable to make manage our lives toward creating the “meaning” we hope to have? This is not a quiz.

 Next, let’s take a look at various ways human beings have attempted to explain our existence, and tried to give it significance. Don’t take this personally, but rather as a survey of the various efforts to extract an answer to the question of meaning. We do have large groups of people who have found their significance through family (propagation, legacy, continuity), through dedication to a nation or tribe (a bigger family, fellowship, the nation’s success, tribal pride), and/or through the flourishing of humanity (progress, however that is defined, benefits to the majority, and so forth). Although they might fit into one of the previous categories, we should call out “people of faith,” those who are focused on the next life earned by means of good behavior in this one.

Still another group, often called environmentalists, spend their efforts and find their meaning in the interest of the planet and sentient beings in addition to themselves. Next, many scientists see the vast, impersonal universe as consisting of matter and energy in which life and consciousness occurred by accident. And let us not forget the nihilists who believe that life has no meaning at all, and that nothing exists after death. In regard to the meaning of human existence, a nihilist would ask, “What if meaning is a construct, and does not exist outside our imagination? Yikes! Scary. But . . . This last group is represented by William Butler Yeats who said, “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”

Finally, there are chosen paths, such as Buddhism, that enter the issue of meaning by first trying to answer the question, “What is reality?” These groups do their best to describe reality as it actually exists, and subsequently offer path(s) to proper behavior and conduct. Most people, especially in the West, don’t like the description of reality that these paths suggest: that life is generally unsatisfactory due to the fact of pervasive and multiple types of suffering. Care to counter that one? Anyone out there who hasn’t suffered? Second, everything and everyone is impermanent. Can you find anyone or anything that lasts forever? And third, and perhaps the most difficult to swallow is that the concept of “a self” is an illusion. Sorry, but quantum physics is beginning to say the same thing.  These paths postulate that the significance of life comes because everything and everyone is “dependently originated,” meaning the whole of existence depends on the natural law of cause-and-effect. On the face of it, this can be seen as either very good or very bad news depending on each individual’s thoughts and actions. Each action affects the family, the country, or all humanity. Finally, as in any system of belief, the opportunity exists to take actions that are good and moral, or that are immoral and destructive.

So, there you have it: an attempt at defining human life. I’ve been either courageous or an idiot taking on this inquiry. I’m certain I haven’t done as good, or at least not as humorous a job as Monty Python did in their movie, “The Meaning of Life.” Don’t blame me for trying. Maybe I’ve gone a bit wacky out here in the Forest. Please, take or leave any or all of the above, but whatever you do, as Omar Khayyam suggests, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

Jackpine Savage