ME??-WOW-I AM JUST AN AMAZING PRODUCT-WELL, WE ALL ARE!!!
"What do two atoms give?” quite an innocent question from my brother. A champ at chemistry that I was, at the dining table, I exclaimed “Molecule!! "." What do two molecules give?" was the next question. "Well, Compounds!!!” was my reaction. "What do two compounds give?” I was getting tired of it now. To put an end to it, I choked out "US!!!” There was silence. Little did I realize that I had opened up another box of pandemonium inside my head.
A net friend, curious on my userID asked me “So, do you like PANDEMONIUM?". My reply was on these lines, " I don’t like it, but I am intrigued by it coz it is the starting point of something inside my head that ultimately gives rise to UTOPIA; and I love being in there". As to how I jumped from pandemonium to utopia in the chemistry case, is intriguing in itself.
To begin with, for me to be me , trillions of drifting atoms had to somehow assemble in an intricate and obliging manner; to get to an arrangement so specialized and particular that it had never been tried before and it will exist only this once. For the next many years ( I hope so ) these atoms will uncomplainingly engage themselves in all the billions of deft, co-operative efforts necessary to keep me intact and let me experience the supremely agreeable but generally under appreciated state known as existence.
Why this trouble is taken is shrouded in mystery. Being me, myself, is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, my atoms don’t actually care about me. Indeed, they don’t even know that I am there. Lol, they don’t even know they are there. They are just mindless particles. Yet, when my time is near, they will betray me , then silently disassemble and go off to other things. As for the period of my existence, they will answer to a single rigid impulse, to keep me ME.
There is something very strikingly odd though. The same atoms that so liberally and congenially flocks together to form ME on planet earth are exactly the same atoms those decline to do it elsewhere in the universe. At the level of chemistry, life is fantastically mundane; You would need carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, sulphur, other ordinary elements (what did i miss? ) to create ME; elements very gettable from the nearby pharmacy. I guess the very special thing about the atoms that make ME is that they make ME. Welcome to the miracle of life.
So thank goodness (or rather godness ) for atoms. But guess what, the fact that atoms so willingly assemble to form ME is just a part of the story. To be here now , typing, and smart enough to know it , I had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune.
Life on earth is kinda brief. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it. Not only have I been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but also have been extremely ( in fact miraculously ) fortunate in my personal ancestry. For a period of time older than the earth’s mountains, rivers and oceans, every one of my fore bearers on both sides has been attractive enough to find a partner, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of them was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, wounded or otherwise deflected from the life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment to perpetuate the only sequence of hereditary combination that could result ( astoundingly and all too briefly) ; THAT IS MEeee. ( Don’t you guys think of it as something Godly? Don`t you get that kick here? Well, when I thought about it, I said 'wow')
Well, that is how I happened (That is how you all happened) .And that is how I reached from pandemonium to utopia in my head, with the feel good factor tugging me. I guess I will come across another stage of pandemonium in the near future. For now, atoms, my friend, carry on what you do the best, carry on making me ME, undisturbed.
A net friend, curious on my userID asked me “So, do you like PANDEMONIUM?". My reply was on these lines, " I don’t like it, but I am intrigued by it coz it is the starting point of something inside my head that ultimately gives rise to UTOPIA; and I love being in there". As to how I jumped from pandemonium to utopia in the chemistry case, is intriguing in itself.
To begin with, for me to be me , trillions of drifting atoms had to somehow assemble in an intricate and obliging manner; to get to an arrangement so specialized and particular that it had never been tried before and it will exist only this once. For the next many years ( I hope so ) these atoms will uncomplainingly engage themselves in all the billions of deft, co-operative efforts necessary to keep me intact and let me experience the supremely agreeable but generally under appreciated state known as existence.
Why this trouble is taken is shrouded in mystery. Being me, myself, is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, my atoms don’t actually care about me. Indeed, they don’t even know that I am there. Lol, they don’t even know they are there. They are just mindless particles. Yet, when my time is near, they will betray me , then silently disassemble and go off to other things. As for the period of my existence, they will answer to a single rigid impulse, to keep me ME.
There is something very strikingly odd though. The same atoms that so liberally and congenially flocks together to form ME on planet earth are exactly the same atoms those decline to do it elsewhere in the universe. At the level of chemistry, life is fantastically mundane; You would need carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, sulphur, other ordinary elements (what did i miss? ) to create ME; elements very gettable from the nearby pharmacy. I guess the very special thing about the atoms that make ME is that they make ME. Welcome to the miracle of life.
So thank goodness (or rather godness ) for atoms. But guess what, the fact that atoms so willingly assemble to form ME is just a part of the story. To be here now , typing, and smart enough to know it , I had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune.
Life on earth is kinda brief. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it. Not only have I been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but also have been extremely ( in fact miraculously ) fortunate in my personal ancestry. For a period of time older than the earth’s mountains, rivers and oceans, every one of my fore bearers on both sides has been attractive enough to find a partner, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of them was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, wounded or otherwise deflected from the life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment to perpetuate the only sequence of hereditary combination that could result ( astoundingly and all too briefly) ; THAT IS MEeee. ( Don’t you guys think of it as something Godly? Don`t you get that kick here? Well, when I thought about it, I said 'wow')
Well, that is how I happened (That is how you all happened) .And that is how I reached from pandemonium to utopia in my head, with the feel good factor tugging me. I guess I will come across another stage of pandemonium in the near future. For now, atoms, my friend, carry on what you do the best, carry on making me ME, undisturbed.
No comments:
Post a Comment