Light and Dark

The human mind is a funny thing. Its greatest strength is its ability to adapt, to change, and to learn. It recognizes its surroundings and in a way conforms to them. Because of it, we can build skyscrapers, paint beautiful pictures, and figure out the speed of light. Because of it we can create marvels as well as destroy them in an instant. Much of what we as human beings is to adapt. To adapt to changing times and situations, changing technologies and knowledge, changing people and changing environments. And as we adapt, we change the world around us. And as we change the world around us, we are forced to adapt to those changes. And so the cycle continues. A permanent state of non-equilibrium, almost. Kinda like evolution.

People say that these changes are signs of growth. That they're signs that the people of today are fitter, stronger, smarter, healthier, BETTER. But is that really true? Sure, now we can send people to the Moon, maybe even to Mars. Sure, the average lifespan is now 70 years when it used to be 40. And sure, people (in America at least) have enough food that each consumes on an average 3 times the amount needed to survive. We drive fast cars, fly aeroplanes, and devastate 25 miles of earth in 0.2 seconds with a single nuclear bomb.

So yes, we've changed. And the world has become smaller, faster, more modernized. But have things really gotten BETTER? Have things actually IMPROVED? So maybe we can live twice as long. But we also work twice as much. We can do things twice as fast but have twice as many things to worry about. We have twice the chance to succeed but also twice the chance to fail. And most importantly, have we grown as HUMAN BEINGS? There may be more love and peace, but there's more fear and hate as well. There's more kindness, but there's also so much more selfishness and cruelty. With the ability to help also comes the ability to withhold, to be selfish, to disdain, to NOT CARE. So much more light, and so much more darkness.

You see, the funny thing about the mind is that its ability to adapt also gives it a particular discontentment. We have gone from being able to adapt to WANTING to adapt and change. The more we have attempted to satisfy the mind the more the mind is unsatisfied. We crave something faster, something smaller, something less expensive, something more green, something more SATISFYING. And it is never enough. Our cellphones let us contact anyone in the world anytime, anyplace, and yet we want it to have a camera, an internet connection, a music player, GPS, and invisible full keyboard, and in the future why not let them give us a caffeine boost as well? We have landed on the Moon, and now we want to land on Mars. What's next? Jupiter? Io and Ganymede? Pluto and Ceres? The Andromeda Galaxy? Alpha Centauri? The universe is EXPANDING, for goodness sake. And still we desire to travel to the ends of the universe. Oh, the pride of humanity. In the words of Britney's greatest fan, Chris Crocker, "Her song was called Gimme More for a reason, 'cause all you people want is more, more, MORE!" Slightly hysterical and absurd, yes, but with a ring of truth nonetheless.

So what now? In the face of the limitless cravings of the human mind, what are our options? To attempt to satiate what cannot be satiated? To go back to a past which knowledge has destroyed forever? Of course not. Our only hope is to find peace and contentment within an ever-changing world. Not to halt change or to accelerate it, but to find some way to be CONTENT with it. To be aware of it and to be both a part of it as well as distinct from it. To hold on to the last vestiges of humanity while accepting and welcoming the inevitable changes of life. To simultaneously change and not change. A difficult proposition, indeed.

There was once a world that was without light. But it wasn't dark, mind you, it was simply without darkness. For without light, how can darkness exist? Then one day, light came, and with it, darkness. The inhabitants of the world loved the light and hated the darkness, and to banish the darkness they created more light. But more light served only to accentuate the darkness. More light served only to emphasize that which was still unlighted. And the brighter the world became, the greater the darkness loomed. The greater the darkness loomed, the more fearful the inhabitants were, and the brighter the world became. It was a never-ending cycle.

And that's our problem. Before mankind developed space travel we could only dream of landing on the Moon. But landing on the Moon didn't banish that desire. It only accentuated the fact that there is so much more in the universe that mankind has yet to conquer. The more we have, the more we are aware of what we DON'T have. And the more we know, the more we are aware of what we DON'T know. It's a seemingly never-ending cycle. The more we give, the more there is to give to. The more we love, the more hate there seems to be in the world.

And yet that is the way things should be. For without hate, how can we appreciate love? Without darkness, how can we appreciate light? Without grief, how can we appreciate joy? Without tasting bitterness, how can we appreciate what is sweet? How can we appreciate the extent of which mankind has progressed if we do not know how much further there is to go? Without the awareness of a man suffering in agony on his deathbed, how can we appreciate the beauty of a newborn child's cry? Without the view of barren, empty landscapes, how can we appreciate lush, verdant forests? And without the horrible smell of autumnal decomposition, who can appreciate the sweet smells of spring flowers? Without the cold of winter who can appreciate the heat of summer? Just as the light accentuates the darkness, so does the darkness give meaning to light. And so in the same way the ugliness of the world we live in gives meaning to the beauty there is.

And THAT is worth living for.