Sunday, 1 September
 |
| Human Artifact |
Good Morning Jacob…
There’s almost no tissue between the forehead and the bone of the
skull. In fact, the head is the skull’s
form barely concealed beneath the soft tissue of the face’s gentle expression. Our skeletal grin reveals itself when our
full, rosy lips part to express our pleasure.
Our sparkling eyes are extensions of our brain, specialized nervous
tissue that pushes its way through boney passages to take in the light that bathes
our surface. On the other hand, the
musculature of our torso and limbs more completely conceals the mechanical
nature of our structure. We are an
assemblage of bones held in place by a network of muscles that act as pulleys
and torsion bars so that we aren’t stuck in one spot, like a plant, our entire
life.
We are built up around a long central tube that must continually be replenished
with objects we ingest from our surroundings.
Our inner workings extract from these once living articles their energy
potential for our own use, so that we can sustain our own life’s mission. Of course, that mission varies greatly from
individual to individual depending upon the nature of our desires, the strength
of our ambition and our intellectual and physical potential.
This, then, is a rough beginning - describing each of us as individual expressions
of an organism made solely of bone, tissue, and a remarkably intricate nervous
system. You and I, as mere individuals
of this species, have goals limited to preserving our own existence if we are
without the benefit that group intelligence provides us. This is a remarkable resource that we might
as well call culture. It provides each of us with memory that
exceeds our own in both time and spatial capacity. It gives us a lexicon of standardized symbols
we can use to share both ideas and the knowledge we acquire from our own
experiences. The commonalities we share
in being part of this one culture enable us to behave as though we are all part
of an extended family. Generally
speaking, we intuitively understand each other when it comes to basic
motivations and we find it preferable for our own welfare to work in
cooperation with one another.
Our group behaves like any complex organism and divides into
specialized parts that separately contribute to the welfare of the whole. Ability and inclination enable a few
individuals to act as the brain – providing direction, after weighing the
potential benefits and dangers of various options. Many individuals set about collecting the
resources needed to maintain the group’s physical welfare. Some people within the group provide the
muscle necessary to encourage a common purpose among our members. They are also vital in discouraging harmful
acts taken against us by other groups and in helping to settle disputes that
may actually arise.
Harmony among the various elements of the group is never to be taken
for granted. Governance is still an art
form dependent upon the availability of individuals displaying both wisdom and
the talent of leadership. The quality of
education reflects the shifting popularity of cultural values. The socialization of the individual to accept
an identity greater than self is never complete… and thankfully so. We are each in pursuit of dreams of a
personal nature and we stubbornly resist homogenizing group thought. There will always be a healthy inclination to
subvert culture so long as we remain human.
We can all be artists busy fabricating our own personal destiny while
still responding to the call of cultural values and the needs of the
group.
How inconvenient, though, it can all be. What stupid decisions we sometimes make as
individuals. Didn’t I learn anything in
school? I wasn’t brought up to be this
way. I readily admit my mistakes are of
my own unique contrivance; as are yours.
It’s about testing conventional thought.
Sometimes we get it right thinking on our own. Much of what we do as individual humans is
worth the trouble we cause to this culturally oiled mechanism that is society…
civilization. It’s what we need to do to
keep life vital. So keep it up.
Love,
Dad
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