Be careful what you name a thing. Shackleton's ship, "The Endurance" needed it. Columbus' "The Mayflower" certainly did and could've probably used some pruning. Charles Darwin's "Beagle" had all the insignificant sound and fury, all the yappy anxiety, and baying conviction of a typical hounddog. With only a faint whiff of truth, he was hot on the trail and the whole neighborhood tried to shut their windows against the noisy intrusion. Evolution's out there; that's for certain, but the exact relationship between a critter and its habitat is complicated and smeared out across the past and the future. It seems like the whole house is gettin' remodeled and we're locked inside until it's done or we figure out how to fire the general contractor.
The other day I was hare-krishna'd by some well meaning hippy who asked if I wanted "to help him save the planet" by joining some eco-club. (turns out I couldn't help too much) As far as I can tell, the planet's not really in a whole lot of trouble. Humans may be the worlds sloppiest tenants but our tiny blip on on time's radar is already fading and this giant ball of teeming furious self-replicating DNA is gonna be just fine in a millennia or so. Humans will be latest layer in a dense strata of interesting artifacts. Something that often gets overlooked in all this ecological chatter is that we humans are just as damn "natural" as every spotted owl and hairy headed fruit bat. If we bark all night and pee in the pool, well that seems to be what human critters do and it may well do us in. The fact that some humans live a bit more responsibly than others just another part of the plan. Live like you were born to, it's all you can do, but don't worry so much about the Earth; after all, it's not particularly worried about you.
This rant started about evolution and got derailed by my second cup of coffee. Burning man's theme this year is evolution and we're headed out on friday to make our way through Berkeley into the black rock desert for a week of experiments in freedom and frivolity. Camp KFC is 20 people strong this year and ready to pass out 2000 fried bologna sandwiches, 40 gallons of bourbon, and a cargo-plane's worth of irreverence.
Be careful what you name a thing. Shackleton's ship, "The Endurance" needed it. Columbus' "The Mayflower" certainly did and could've probably used some pruning. Charles Darwin's "Beagle" had all the insignificant sound and fury, all the yappy anxiety, and baying conviction of a typical hounddog. With only a faint whiff of truth, he was hot on the trail and the whole neighborhood tried to shut their windows against the noisy intrusion. Evolution's out there; that's for certain, but the exact relationship between a critter and its habitat is complicated and smeared out across the past and the future. It seems like the whole house is gettin' remodeled and we're locked inside until it's done or we figure out how to fire the general contractor.
The other day I was hare-krishna'd by some well meaning hippy who asked if I wanted "to help him save the planet" by joining some eco-club. (turns out I couldn't help too much) As far as I can tell, the planet's not really in a whole lot of trouble. Humans may be the worlds sloppiest tenants but our tiny blip on on time's radar is already fading and this giant ball of teeming furious self-replicating DNA is gonna be just fine in a millennia or so. Humans will be latest layer in a dense strata of interesting artifacts. Something that often gets overlooked in all this ecological chatter is that we humans are just as damn "natural" as every spotted owl and hairy headed fruit bat. If we bark all night and pee in the pool, well that seems to be what human critters do and it may well do us in. The fact that some humans live a bit more responsibly than others just another part of the plan. Live like you were born to, it's all you can do, but don't worry so much about the Earth; after all, it's not particularly worried about you. 
This rant started about evolution and got derailed by my second cup of coffee. Burning man's theme this year is evolution and we're headed out on friday to make our way through Berkeley into the black rock desert for a week of experiments in freedom and frivolity. Camp KFC is 20 people strong this year and ready to pass out 2000 fried bologna sandwiches, 40 gallons of bourbon, and a cargo-plane's worth of irreverence.
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