Wisdom

NASA tells us Mars once had plentiful water which evaporated when its atmosphere thinned. Life, as we know it, requires water. It is supposed, given the presence of water, microbial life could have existed at one time on Mars but we haven’t found proof.

As we humans begin to touch the barest fringes of the universe, it seems clear we would go absolutely nuts at the first sign of non-earthly life. Whether a microbe or a larger creature of any sort, we would be transfixed. If we actually discovered even semi-sentient life we would lose our minds. No amount of money would be spared in learning all we could possibly know about it.

The irony is, scientists estimate between eighty and ninety percent of all forms of life on Earth have yet to be properly identified. Simply put, we do not know millions of the life forms with which we share life on Earth.

We are a myopic bunch. We focus on narrow interests and fail to even comprehend how everything fits together. We are inundated with information and sadly lacking in wisdom.

Wisdom is not knowing lots of things, wisdom lies in grasping how things are interconnected. Simple common sense tells us mosquitoes are a pest. They bite us causing irritation, they can swarm to such a degree they’ve been known to drive both animals and humans insane. That’s simple knowledge. Wisdom, however, lies in understanding that, like many things we don’t like, mosquitoes are an important part of a healthy environment. They are an important food source for many birds, fish, bats, and frogs. Mosquitoes are even important pollinators. We will all cheerfully swat them but we really don’t want them totally eliminated.

Down through history countless peoples have been taught that some other group of people are hopelessly evil and deserve to be eliminated. We are positive in our biases. We’re so certain of such belief that there have been no periods in human history in which there was no war. Some historians point to brief periods of peace but they were very brief and, in all likelihood, somebody was fighting somewhere but we’re just not aware of it.

Life is precious. All life is interconnected. Even as we reach for the stars, we perhaps can reorient our thinking to cherish each expression of life we have right here.

To do so requires changing how our culture assigns value. Our cultural focus could, theoretically, be on nurturing life rather than extracting wealth. So long as value is equated with the acquisition of wealth we devalue life. If life were more precious than money and power, teachers would be among the highest paid occupations. Artists who give voice to our better angels would be more prized than captains of industry who only make more and more stuff to sell. Polluting the environment which destroys life would be criminal.

It is possible to change our thinking but it is only possible if we let go of our cultural assumptions.