Uncertain times; certain future
The only thing that can be said with 100% certainty when a human being is born is that he or she will die. Everything else inbetween is a game of chance. This is no great revelation yet the human mind does not comprehend this simple truth during it's lifetime. Everyone has to die someday, but that doesn't stop us from grieving. Sometimes so much that one is not able to cope with the loss.
I once saw a documentary on Jane Goodall's attempt to study the life of the great ape. There was one particular mother that she followed through the birth of the third child. Apes have the same instinctual behaviour found in all other mammals that is of weaning away the child after it has grown enough to feed on whatever else the grown ups do. But in the case o the third child it was a little different. The mother was so old by the time she had the third child that she could not succeed in weaning him away even a long time after the usual period. Eventually the kid was so dependent on his mother for everything right from feeding to playing - he did not even play with his friends/cousins. One fine day the old mother dies leaving this kid absolutely unprepared for life ahead. The mother's body is on a rock by a stream slowly rotting. This kid climbs up a tree and builds himself a nest - the first time he shows adult behaviour, and settles into it looking down on his mother's corpse. The camera crew did sucha a good job of capturing his emotions; everone could see he was overcome with extreme grief. Finally the kid dies of grief in his nest. If you saw the documentary you would be moved to tears unless you're the type who's heart is made of granite.
The moral of this story is that this grief thing is not unique to humans alone. However humans are supposed to have the sixth sense which helps in rational thought. Why then are we still like our ancestors? We worry about everything we experience or do. Anxiety, depression, elation, fear and such emotional states are purely a product of the fertile mind irrigated by the sixth sense. Wisdom is like ether -available everywhere. But the so called rational mind is spoilt by the concept of free will, the ability to choose.
I once saw a documentary on Jane Goodall's attempt to study the life of the great ape. There was one particular mother that she followed through the birth of the third child. Apes have the same instinctual behaviour found in all other mammals that is of weaning away the child after it has grown enough to feed on whatever else the grown ups do. But in the case o the third child it was a little different. The mother was so old by the time she had the third child that she could not succeed in weaning him away even a long time after the usual period. Eventually the kid was so dependent on his mother for everything right from feeding to playing - he did not even play with his friends/cousins. One fine day the old mother dies leaving this kid absolutely unprepared for life ahead. The mother's body is on a rock by a stream slowly rotting. This kid climbs up a tree and builds himself a nest - the first time he shows adult behaviour, and settles into it looking down on his mother's corpse. The camera crew did sucha a good job of capturing his emotions; everone could see he was overcome with extreme grief. Finally the kid dies of grief in his nest. If you saw the documentary you would be moved to tears unless you're the type who's heart is made of granite.
The moral of this story is that this grief thing is not unique to humans alone. However humans are supposed to have the sixth sense which helps in rational thought. Why then are we still like our ancestors? We worry about everything we experience or do. Anxiety, depression, elation, fear and such emotional states are purely a product of the fertile mind irrigated by the sixth sense. Wisdom is like ether -available everywhere. But the so called rational mind is spoilt by the concept of free will, the ability to choose.
posted by supramenta at 3:05 AM
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