Just wait and see

This morning we were at the hospital with our daughter to see a neurologist about the seizures that started before summer but she couldn't shine much light on the cause or course of action. Essentially, we just have to wait and see if the seizures will happen again and at what intensity. One of the first phrases I taught to my daughter was "Be patient" so I guess that I have to set an example for it too. I try not to be too hypocritical or a "Do as I say, not as I do" kind of parent. It is difficult but I prefer a wait and see approach than rush into a diagnosis based on inadequate information.

Life is both simple and unbelievably complex simultaneously. The simplicity is that at the core of life itself, there really are only a few basic needs that require satisfaction in order to satisfy survival. The complexity comes through the psychological layers on top that give us the drive to want more and, the cognitive skills to create capabilities that we alone are incapable of performing.

The hospital is going through a large expansion and there is construction all over the complex. My daughter likes machines of all sorts and as we walked past was saying, "yellow excavator, orange excavator, tall crane" and was watching them intently. Although similar in process, there is a massive difference between an animal using a stick to get ants out of a hole for a meal and our ability to create the machinery to literally move mountains.

Our capacity to affect and manipulate our environment is enormous and due to our insatiable appetite for advancement, there is no limit on how far we go other than universal law and, our tendency to compete against each other until annihilation. There is nothing in our programming however that says we can't develop in a sustainable way, we just choose to rather face off against each other in a myriad arms races to be the first to benefit from the new, even if that benefit comes at the harm of others.

We as the human species are only able to live in a narrow band of environment and climate with a fragile balance of chemical compounds required to support us. Too much or not enough of some factors can cause the environment to become unlivable for all of us and then without technological development, nature cannot evolve us fast enough to adapt.

It is an interesting process as it is likely too late to just 'heal the world' if we stop polluting it today as what is required is rehabilitiation, not rest and recovery. The earth of course doesn't care as despite us calling it 'Mother', it is an unconscious and dynamic ecosystem that was here before us and will outlast well past us as a species, even if life does not survive on the planet at all.

What this means is that for us to survive, we have to find solutions to bring a balance in the environment where humans and all we need is safe for us to continue. What concerns me is what kind of damage we have already done and what kind of effects it will have on those who follow us. Perhaps the problems my daughter face are undiagnosed because it is a reaction to environmental changes, something in the food or air, perhaps something in the exhaust of the machines she loves to watch as they dig.

I am quite comfortable in predicting that moving forward we are going to see an increase in various unexplained illness both of the physical and psychological kinds as the environment changes around us and, we change it. Some of the symptoms might even be positive for us as a species and perhaps by some stroke of luck there will be a mental switch clicked in some of us that give us access to develop the technological solutions we will need.

The neurologist watched my daughter play with me as she spoke to my wife about the situation and said that she didn't have to test her skills to see if she is developing well enough as she performed everything required in her normal play. I do not hide the fact that our daughter is unusually talented in some areas but, what if this is a symptom of environmental change, what if she has had the switch flicked and has some increased potential to solve problems in our collective future?

Perhaps that hidden in the mess that we have made the process of evolution and fight for survival has been experimenting randomly as it does and has found a solution to our destructive nature as a species. No matter what it is and who or what has caused the massive changes we are going to face, it is up to us to find the solutions or, go extinct trying.

We will have to wait and see which it will be but, doing what we have always done is not likely to improve our chances.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]