First Voice: There isn't any proof. None. You take the Bible's story on faith. Whether the entire sixty-six books, or just the Old Testament, or only the first five books. All the versions of the Bible's content require believing without tangible evidence for any of it. Whether it is the ageless wisdom of the Torah, or the joyous Good News of the Gospels, the scripture in this and every holy book similarly compell readers to accept details as full narratives, or as confirmed, structured thought well beyond challenge or alternate understanding. The Torah claims a Messiah's arrival is yet pending. The New Testament says God, i.e., Yahway, Jehovah, Christ, Holy Spirit - sent his Jewish Son to die on a cross for the sins of man, thereby redeeming humanity for all of eternity. Neither story persuades me at all. Both belief systems stretch reality beyond rational possibility or anything plausible, desirable, or with arguably noble motives. I could never believe an allegedly...
Consider this: All humans are 99.9% similar to one another in the part of the human genome that codes for proteins. In equivalent areas of the genome, we are 98.8% genetically similar to chimpanzees, 75% similar to chickens, and even 60% similar to banana trees. Somehow, I find these well-known facts of research oddly reassuring. The universe knows what to do. I'll take the afternoon off, walk my dog, make a sandwich for lunch, with a banana. There's no actual existential drama, except by my own anxious invention.
Reflection time. Do I hash this out every year ending to self punish, or encourage, or take some other count? Not sure, but it feels like a requisite process that must be some form of healing, or mending all the unforeseeable hurts and surprises of the past dozen months. Perhaps each time I'm looking for purpose, or reason to count up all my blessings. There are always more to realize. It was a year of profound and consequential change, inevitable maturing, and generational shift. To our amazement, our boy turned twenty-one, truly a child no more. Personally, my own progress as a human being doesn't impress me. This year, I still worried too much, reacted to too much, and definitely another year of just thinking too much. Overthinking isn't good. Neither is emotion controlling the moment when it's unimportant. Still room for so much improving, fine tuning, and just learning more. Maybe that's next year's theme: more discovery, being simply kinder.
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