The world – that is, my world – today is a frozen spectacle of sunshine. And I haven’t any outstanding duties. Getting up early – in spite of having retired at 2:00 am this morning – wasn’t a challenge.  Lingering mournfully in bed like Samuel Beckett reputedly did in his Paris apartment was no contribution or obstruction to my awakening. While I won’t pretend that my energy is like this every day, it was today. In fact to have behaved otherwise would, I am certain, have been a greater defiance. Once again Nature teaches us not only how to die but equally importantly how to live. Whether we must take a further step beyond the obvious to search for meaning is doubtful.

Acceptance is a characteristic of animals. Humans on the other hand question themselves and others. It is curious that even our well-being may at times exert the need to search for what is wrong. Humans seemingly distinguish themselves from animals by having the capacity to alter their environment for the benefit of others – an objective which many see as a need to enable fulfillment. Suddenly a sunny day is clouded with streaks of debate and we risk falling back into the lost and confused world of Godot.

Though I have known moments of peril, injury and pain, I have invariably been relieved of the contamination – whether by drugs, surgery or time.  Bloody messes become dried parchment upon the surface, first hidden by band-aids then restored by shades of purple before finally blending invisibly to the whole. To say that the restorative bent or entitlement is deservedly attributed to one or the other is nonsense; yet, so is its denial. Our overriding productive ambition in life soon defeats the abstract analysis of such things. Whether we prefer it or not, Nature has its own agenda. And the scope of that agenda – whether it reaches to our immediate limits or deep into the galaxy and beyond – is both irrelevant and inexplicable. The paradox of life is that resolving local detail is the answer to universal questions – or, at the very least, a metaphor for doing so.