Lessons from the tree

Finally, a moment of serenity. Its been a pandemonium recently. But I guess a good all-immersive experience in a different sort of world which I always felt alienated to. Is it a good thing to always be rational and not go for hype? Don't you get more out of life if you let yourself get lost in the crowd, flowing around with events happening around you and to you, instead of holding steadfast and resisting change?

Its so peaceful to look at a tree, the clouds, the moon. The omnipresent symbols of the fact that the world is not about me,the individual, but is something greater. I am but an evanescent existence. The clouds, the mountains are the things which have always been, and will be. Do they attach any significance to that I made it to IIT? to IIM? or whatever I am going to do in future? They have seen generations, will see many more. Each with its achievers, with its drivers, with its sheeple. No matter what I may like, humans haven't really changed over the ages. Things around them might have, but we still think the same thoughts, have the same apprehensions, same desires, same happiness, and so on. Asimov's psychohistory(a fictional branch of science where you predict the future development of large masses of people) makes more and more sense as I grow up.

A tree is so peaceful and tranquil, no pain, no arrogance, no desires. Who am I to believe my existence is more fulfilling? But then, fulfillment is itself just a human 'concept'. So are 'pain' and 'desire'. Am I attaching more importance to non-intelligent life than it deserves? But who is to decide who deserves what?

I find it amazing that both man and tree can results of the same evolutionary process. Are these two the only stereotypes in which life may evolve? Sometimes I feel we classify that we define tree as 'life' just due to lack of imagination. But we do share ancestry, right? So I may be wrong. But still, is Life the only exotic stuff universe produces? Try as I might, I am too bound with my own mental blocks to progress on this line of thought. Maybe that is for the best, intellectual masturbation should have its limits.

The moon. I was surprised recently on realizing how long I have gone without the feeling of wonder that comes with watching the night sky. Education has so ruined us. But if nothing else, it is amusing to think how many loners are looking at the moon the same time I am, and how many have looked at the same sight from era to era.

On a side note I have recently become a fan of Craig Ventor, the guy who first sequenced the human genome, and has recently created the first cell with a synthetic genome. In effect, a whole class of organisms should in the future consider him their god, their creator, in the truest sense. But that aside, this is quite a landmark event in human development. Even if we don't develop genetically-engineered humans in the near future, our physiology will definitely be affected by the modified-medicines, food, and maybe insects/animals we will be living with.