I Like It

I don't know about you, but I keep feeling oddly reassured after I read these poems of the TAO. It's like the poems take all the simple truths, rules and patterns of the world which are never outwardly discussed, and puts them in writing, in concrete language. It's reassuring to just know that these ideas actually work together and all harmonize together. The poems are pretty and they have a nice rhythm, I find just reading them relaxing. The circular messages are sometimes annoying to think about, but it's nice to know that they go in circles. It's nice to know that there is no controversy associated, that you can't really argue with the case presented. The thruths are just accepted and contemplated. I like it.

To Create

Taken from TAO 64,

"Create before it exists
lead before it goes astray"

"...nine story tower, rises from a pile of earth,
a thousand mile journey, begins with a single step."

I love these quotes from TAO, I found them so inspiring and so true. Really another way of expressing the value of "carpe diem," seizing the day, and motivation. Everything starts small as they say, you have to work hard accomplish the big feats. This made me think of the huge billion dollar companies that capitalize society today. They all started small, maybe in a home. Maybe as just one, lowly restaurant. And now, through time and hard work they have succeeded and spread all over the world. My dad owns start up company, and so I have witnessed this theme firsthand. Sometimes the company seems near bankrupt, but then it'll spike and have huge sales and huge profits. The company started with only five employees, and now employs a couple hundred. It's amazing what can happen.

I can't stop thinking about the theme of creating before it exists either. For some reason I just thought of art and how when you go to an art show you see the projects and you wonder how the artist possibly came up with their ideas. Even an abstract painting, it puzzles me how sometimes the piece is so simple, but in reality it's the idea that matters, not the simplicity of the construction. It is then I realize I could have never come up the same, raw, simple idea and so I could have never produced something quite like it. Darwin too, was worried about creating before it already existed. He wanted to make sure his theories were right on, but he ran out of time and someone else was already ready to publish. Darwin wanted to be the first step, the initial creator of his theories, that is why he was more or less forced to publish.

Doing Nothing

Today I sat in my room for a good fifteen minutes and essentially "did nothing." I sat on my bed and tried to clear my thinking, I didn't let my eyes focus on anything, I just tried to relax and meditate for a time. Honestly I love the idea of meditation. I do it while I run and sometimes while I paint. I do it in airports waiting for a flight. Just sitting, not really thinking, waiting, doing nothing. This summer I did yoga a lot and after the stretching exercises there was a time for meditation. This time came to be my favorite part of the class and it felt so refreshing after.

Nevertheless, today I was a little out of practice. I found it really difficult to keep my mind clear and to relax. But after about five minutes I was totally emerged. Just sitting and breathing, subconsciously reflecting. When I came out of it, I felt so rested and sort of recharged. It's so relaxing just clearing your mind. I was able to put everything sort of in perspective, focus on the work I had to do tonight and other responsibilities. It's like hypnotizing yourself. I didn't really reflect on anything directly that had to do with the TAO, but it's that sort of yin/yang feeling that I get from meditation. Like everything will work itself out and that everything works in harmony with it's counterpart. Such wonderful, cheap, stress relief.

Observing

I am seated in front of the library staring across the lake, looking. I watch the trees, the people and the water's surface. I love to look at the trees, they are my favorite. In my town, we have many pine trees and spruces. Here the trees are large, leafy and very green. Much different than what I am used to. I wonder how old these trees are? They seem ancient judging by the thick trunks and large, expansive branches. I wonder what type of day it was when they were planted? Was it as warm as it is now? Were the campus building even here?

Nevertheless, I guess this is supposed to be a scientific observation, already I am deviating. It's officially fall now, the leaves have started to drop. In a few weeks they will turn, just before dying. This much I know. But what created this process, of leaves, of the budding, the growth, the turning of colors and then dying, falling? Was this something the trees have always participated in? Is it a mutation, from thousands of years ago? Did one tree suddenly drop its leaves in the winter and have a higher rate of survival, therefore producing more trees with this same trait? I would not know for sure, but I can wonder.

I notice each tree has its place. Almost like a territory set out around it. No other trees dare to grow in this area. Is this because of competition for water and nutrients? Or, more artificial, like the landscaping crew for campus. Although the answer is probably the latter, I enjoy the thought of these trees engaging in some sort of unseen fight for survival. In an actual forest maybe they would, but not here. Here these trees are babied, cared for, weeded around and watered if needed. But then, does that make them weaker than the rest of the trees in the world? The trees around the University campus are more or less protected from natural selection. If they show signs of despair the landscapers take over and protect it. In the wild, this same tree would probably die. I can connect this curiosity back to what Darwin said about humans, how we care for our weak and thus weaken the species. Mmmm...all that just by observing.

Working Together to Select the Best

Darwin makes a critical jump in his theory when he combines the ideas of natural selection and sexual selection. He concludes that both processes work together and need each other for success. Darwin writes, "the more vigorous and better-nourished individuals...will be ready to bread in the spring before the others." "Such early pairs would have the same advantage in rearing offspring" (262). In other words, the strongest survive and by surviving they get the best mates, winning both in natural selection and sexual selection.

It's true though, the way they work together. You can't have natural selection without some sort of sexual selection, then the species would never reproduce. And you can't have sexual selection without natural selection because sexual selection is natural selection in the sense that only those with the best genes will find the best mates and continue on the instinctive goal of perfecting the species.

The male with the best feathers, song, show will get the best females. Therefore, they will reproduce more beings with good genes and improve the population. The others with out the best feathers, songs, etc. have been naturally selected out of the population because they were sexually selected not to continue the species by not reproducing or reproducing very little. It's harsh, but it's nature and Darwin just recognized it working at a new, co-dependent level.

For the Love of Health Care

"It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed" (247).

I found this quote quite fascinating and unfortunately very true. Darwin explains how when we are sympathetic, and give care to those who are too weak, we are weakening our species as a whole. He also makes a point that man is one of the only species who allows those weakest in his population to breed. As insensitive and immoral as it sounds, this statement speaks the truth. The human species is slowly weakening. I don't want to sound harsh, but for the sake of the argument, humans would be such a stronger species if we didn't save and nurture the weak. If we had limits on health care, perhaps those too sick to survive without modern technology would just die off and leave more space for the rest of the population. This is one of the reasons why the human population is out of control anyway, technology, our ability to cure almost any disease. People can live after huge, deadly diseases now because of our extensive health system. There are people with brain deformities living normal lives, people missing arms and legs, people with artificial hearts. In the natural world, none of these people would be able to survive. They would be the ones naturally selected, weeded out, for the good of the species.

But on the other hand. I like health care. I want to be treated, to be cured. That is another part of the natural selection. The will to live. One must have some sort of will to live in order to survive, obviously. That is why humans came up with health care in the first place. We are, once again adapting to our environment, finding ways around the natural checks. I just find this a delightful irony. As a species we survive by inventing ways to conquer death, but that is ultimately making us a weaker species.

The Power of Adaptation

Darwin talks about man in many ways during his discussions on evolution and natural selection. One thing I found interesting was when he mentions how adaptable man is and how humans can basically survive anywhere on the Earth. Darwin states about man, "He has the great power of adapting to his habits to new conditions of life" (242).

I agree with this. Humans are amazing the way they can make almost any situation livable with the aid of technology and certain tools. I guess it's something we've had to evolve to be. Could our will to adapt and power over our surroundings be something natural selection has allowed to evolve? I think so. Otherwise we would still be hunting and gathering in the heart of Africa, unable to tolerate any other climate, food or environment. I think it was necessary for humans, for survival as a species, to learn how to be adaptable because we have such a large population and we live for so long. We also take up a lot of space, using a lot of resources. We have to adapt to be able to expand our "territories" to gain more space for the species.

This also makes me think of college. Adapting. I was suddenly thrown into a campus full of young adults, in the middle of VA, on the west coast, expected to thrive and prosper. At first I was shocked coming from an average Oregon town. But I learned to adapt. To make my situation livable and now enjoyable. As a part of the human species, I survived.