"Lots of people have talked about taking that step into the unknown.
Taking that step into the unknown is actually a lot less courageous
than taking a step from the unknown."
...
I am indebted to Josh Cohen who contributed material for this
conversation.
Ah, miraculous us! We really are miraculous.
But it's a miraculousness that isn't always apparent / obvious because
what it is to
be human,
is unexamined. The most miraculous aspect of
human beings
is the
ordinariness
of
being human,
so much so that we're taken aback to
discover
our own miraculousness. The most
ordinary
aspect of
human beings
is the miraculousness of
being human,
so much so that we're taken aback on
discovering
our own
ordinariness.
Each of us goes through
moments
of being miraculous or
ordinary
or both, especially during those times when we're not taking ourselves
for granted - and when we are, then neither our miraculousness nor our
ordinariness
is apparent / obvious. And notice how being miraculous and
ordinary
is self-referential: what makes us miraculous is we're
ordinary
/ all the same (if that's not immediately obvious, consider how
miraculous it is to have the ability to sense we're all the same); what
makes us
ordinary
is we all come from the same miraculousness (we're all cut from the
same cloth). To appear
ordinary,
is miraculous!
The mere fact that we exist at all, is a miracle. It's also miraculous
that we can make distinctions, that we can create, that we share
independent
thoughts,
that we have a capacity for
language,
that we have the power to transform our lives ie we have the power to
forge our own futures (that's the understated miracle).
Another of the aspects that makes us
ordinary
is there are so many of us. At first glance, we're really not all that
much different than one another.
Here's something else that makes us miraculous, which is that unlike
all the other species of plants and animals that co-exist with us on
the planet,
we're arguably the only species with the ability to transform our lives
and
Life itself.
A palm tree can not transform its life. It has no
language
capacity for that. A warthog can't transform its life. It has no
language
capacity for it.
A human being
on the other hand, has the power to transform its life. It has a
language
capacity for that. I want you to get this: appreciated or not, it's
miraculous that we have the capacity for
language.
Here's something else that makes us
ordinary:
it's if we don't manage to survive, we'll quickly
die off
- the same as all other species of plants and animals which co-exist
with us on
the planet.
Even with all the above distinguished, it's arguably a lot easier to
grok (as Robert Heinlein may have said) all of our
ordinariness
than it is to grok all of our miraculousness.
Human beings
are also
ordinary
in the sense that we're a dime a dozen, we each have two eyes, a nose,
a mouth,
arms and legs etc. Our miraculousness on the other hand, is a lot
harder to grok than that, even though it's the quality which
differentiates us the most from all the other species.
If you consider the miraculousness /
ordinarinesspresent
in just one human being, and then you consider the miraculous /
ordinarinesspresent
in a group of human beings, it's almost beyond comprehension. A group
of
human beings
that at first glance we consider to be quite
ordinary,
is really miraculous. A group of
human beings
that at first glance we consider to be miraculous, is really quite
ordinary.
Sometimes when I look at ie when I really take a look at
the miraculousness of us ie when I really look at the miraculousness of
human beings, when I get beyond (or below) the
ordinariness
of it all, I'm blown away ie I'm simply ... blown ...
away. When we're born, we don't come labeled "miraculous".
That's something we distinguish later. It's a miraculous ability.
