Reason

  

S E L F      A W A R E

Vitruvian Man

da Vinci

Humans don't settle for just being.

We have our own specific identity

and we want it to have purpose.

Why do I exist?

 What should I do?

How do I fit in?

These are questions requiring reflection -

objective observation of one's own personal

characteristics as well as one's role in society.

Physical sustenance alone is never enough

to sustain the life of the mind.

A G R I C U L T U R E

Farming.  Growing crops for future food.

Provide water and protection for the plants.

You understand time as a string of days.

There is a time to plant, time to nurture and

time to harvest.  These seasons repeat as a 

group into a year.  Tracking the paths of star

in the night sky enabled ancient farmers to

calculate where they were in the plant's

life cycle.  Observation and simple math 

enabled humanity to harvest a surplus,

providing enough food to support the 

creation of towns.

E N G I N E E R I N G

 Ziggurat of Ur

2100 BC

You need a plan.

What will it look like?

How long will it take?

How many people?  

What kind of material is best to use?

What about the weather?

Where's the money?

We will need engineers and mathematicians.

Of course, this all has to be recorded so hire

a good number of scribes.

P O L I T I C S

What a clever species we are. 

We organize to get things done.

Someone has to be in charge.

Rulers were made King.

Laws are made to govern behavior.

Disputes arise between societies that

sometimes require the lethal use of force.

Politics involves the acquiring of power

and then its efficient use for governing.

 

A R T

Venus of Willendorf 

About 30,000 years ago someone carved

the woman of their desire.  She was a 

four inch tall token of sensual form.

Her compact curves fit comfortably in the

palm of one's hand - just small enough

to take with you wherever your group

chanced to wander.

The head is under a basket.  Could be

this prehistoric artist figured carving 

facial features too difficult.  Could be

that art doesn't always follow logic.

 

F A I T H

 Life ever lasting.  Heaven awaits those 

of faith.  It is a sacred story involving

redemption as God had his son crucified

 for the sake of cleansing humanity of

their sins.

 

Stories of faith address questions that have

answers science cannot provide.  Like matters

of the spirit, sacred events leave no physical

trance for our detection.  Undoubtedly,

much remains beyond the ability of our 

current scientific instruments to discover.

But it will still need to be physical to detect.

Organizations promoting spiritual values often 

validate human feelings of empathy, as well as

 setting standards for decency and fairness.

Love thy neighbor.

What a concept.

*   *   *   *   *

 ©  Tom Taylor 

OVER   EASY

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good morning jeremy

   

G   U   L   L   S

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   dad

  

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Recent Life

  

H E S P E R O C Y O N    /    A N C I E N T     D O G     F A M I L Y

 The long muzzled face looks like a dog.

The stance could be shared with a cat.

Long neck.  Long tail.  Too long for a

modern dog.  The long torso allows for

considerable bend - like a greyhound.

The spring of the back adds to the animal's

propulsion.  The leg's backward knee is

actually the animal's ankle.  Beneath it

are the foot bones that never touch ground.

I C E     A G E     E L E P H A N T

 The Pleistocene extends back over two million years.

It was a time of fluctuating cooling and warming climates.

At its peak the last Ice Age covered 30 percent of the

globe's land area.  The fossils of this species of elephant

were uncovered in South America.  Elephants populated

the Earth everywhere.

  P A L A E O L O X O D O N     A N T I Q U U S

 Thirteen feet tall at the shoulders.

Just about fifteen tons on the scale.

It's hard to come up with the name

of a four-legged mammal that is larger.

The diverse and widespread family of

elephants is now reduced to a shrinking

pool, mostly domesticated or protected

inhabitants of government lands.

 A L L     I N     T H E     F A M I L Y

 Flat footed.  Every member of this family of species

uses its foot bones for feet, and not a leg extension.

The tree dwellers, Gibbons and Orangutan,

have arms that reach the full length of their body to

touch the ground.  The Gorilla's head is larger than the

human's but half of its skull is made up of a massive jaw. 

Only the human stance is totally vertical.  What truly

stands out, though, is the size of the human cranium,

where the brain resides, holding within its confines

the ability of reason and imagination.  

P R I M A T E     R E S O R T

This lakeside resort is representative of a Pleistocene

environment that primates of all sorts continue to favor.

It has a healthy forest, access to plenty of water as well

as providing a comfortable, mild climate for lounging.

It's ideal for gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees and

gorillas.  Humans would add a Hyatt. 

S A B E R     T O O T H

 11,000 years ago Ice Age saber toothed tigers

inhabited what is now Los Angeles.  There were likely

human witnesses to the likes of these Saber Tooths,

Mammoth Elephants and Giant Sloughs.

It is in this arena that human awareness may first

separate these people from the ancients.

It is the isolation of human consciousness.

A new story begins.

*   *   *   *   * 

©  Tom Taylor

 

 OVER   EASY

 

 

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good morning justin

  

 

S U N D A Y    I N    T H E    P A R K

 

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Asteroid

  

A G E    O F     D I N O S A U R S

The dinosaurs dominated the landscape for 

175 million years.  

 A S T E R O I D       I M P A C T

 One day 66 million years ago an asteroid 7 miles across

hit the Earth with the force of a speeding bullet.

The impact liquified rock twenty miles deep.

A mile high tsunami resulted.  Clouds of debris blocked

sunlight for years, destroying photosynthesis because

of the widespread plant die offs.  75% of all animal

species were swept from existence as starvation and

toxins took their toll.

T O X I C     V O L C A N T I C     G A S

 A second source of catastrophic death was also 

occurring in India as volcanic eruptions belched 

toxic gases, rich in sulfur, into the atmosphere.

The Earth's plants were not only cut off from

their ultimate energy bar, the sun, but the rain

came laced with chemicals only a refinery 

would appreciate.

 A G E     O F     M A M M A L S

The world is an empty place.

The noise and nuisances of life are gone.

Every life strategy you can think of is available

to those able to show up.  Recovery from mass extinction

begins immediately.  

First off, who are our survivors?

Generally speaking, small seed-eating animals

that can survive long periods without food. 

Eventually DNA fills this land of opportunities

with animal improvisations of every sort.

The species best engineered to meet the

circumstance wins out over time.  But

success is not guaranteed.  There are always

new challenges that must first be met.

E L E P H A N T     B I R D

 The large bipedal predator like T. rex was gone.

An ostrich type bird eventually developed enough

to occupy this long empty niche.  The musclebound 

legs say this bird would never get off the ground.

A small head with a bird bill replaces a massive

jaw filled with teeth as in the earlier dinosaur version.

Apparently useless wings replace clawed forearms.

No need for a tail as counterbalance to the weight

 of a heavy head and neck up front because of

its nonexistence.

This bird was a dinosaur with feathers.

P R I M A T E     A N C E S T O R

The oldest known species of primate lineage.

Purgatorius appears in the fossil record about

100,000 years following the Cretaceous - Paleocene

extinction.  It probably ate seeds and lived in trees

like a squirrel.  The prominent nose makes it

easier to track down buried seeds.

How horrified they might have been 

once they found out their distant offspring

would turn out to be apes.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

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good morning jacob

  

S  O  N  I  C

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-

Pterosaur

  

H A T Z E G O P T E R Y X

They aren't dinosaurs but they grew up 

in the same neighborhood along side 

T. rex and Triceratops.  They were

lightweight and agile, and they had wings.

P T E R A N O D O N

 The first vertebrates to fly -  true sustained

flight.  Genetic roll of the dice stumbled upon

the solution by elongating the fourth finger

of the animal's forearm to enormous length.

Every Pterosaur had this basic wing 

arrangement.

L U S O G N A T H U S

 Tens of millions of years of uninterrupted tropical bliss

over most of the globe.  Life was good.

Everyone knew their place in the grand scheme of 

things.  Earthly paradise had become the law of nature.

P T E R O S A U R I A

The Crustaceous was a time of behemoths 

roaming the land.  Even the flying reptiles

the size of a giraffe were able to become

airborne despite packing the weight of 550 pounds.

 A R A M B O U R G L A N I A

 A number of Pterosaur species had developed

wings that also served as forelegs.  This approach

could provide a good living for those prone to 

browse among the brush for small animals.

 

K A R I R I D R A C O

 The brain made up in efficiency what it lacked

  in size.  The area set aside for flight

control had a highly specialized division of labor.

Organization proved superior in performance

when compared with general purpose memory.

This entire class of animals died alongside 

dinosaurs when an asteroid the size of 

Mount Everest hit the Earth 66 million

years ago.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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