PURPOSE of LIFE

For most of human history,
From our conception to our birth,
Our forbears couldn't question why.
They simply lived in Mother Earth
Reacting to her every move.
If her creative plan was real
Their natural activity
We must conclude was the ideal.
They reached out to the limits of
Capacities that are unique,
To others, and to Nature's God.
For purpose they just didn't seek.

Then 'Eve' asked 'Adam', "Why am I?"
Which gave birth to humanity.
When 'Adam' answered, "I don't know."
He gave birth to our mystery
Which lasts so we still have a known
Conclusion we cannot avoid.
Though we don't know the reason why,
We're in reaction to the void.
This doesn't mean we must ask, "Why...?"
Reactions can be passed along
By others without questioning
The reason we reprise their 'song'.

The metaphysical unknown
That 'Adam' found was not the same
As physical unknowns he feared.
His fear of it he couldn't tame.
The physical unknowns he met
He tamed with either fight or flight.
The void however is within
So he could neither flee nor fight.
Instead he tried to fill the void
In order to give peace of mind.
He made up myths but felt them fail
So other ways he tried to find.

He didn't try exclusively.
In fact his tries were minuscule
Since most of his activity
Remained ideal, by Nature's rule.
But over the millennia
As tries to fill the void increased,
To make room in our lives for them
Ideal activity decreased.
Since tries to fill the void decreased
Activity that's natural,
Activity that is a try
Is opposite, unnatural.

Our tries to fill the void are not
The only way we can react.
Somewhere along the line of time
Just giving up became a fact.
Although it's inactivity,
Our giving up is like our tries;
It too decreases natural
Activity that makes our lives.

Though 'Adam' tried to fill the void'
To be a system of defence,
Reactions to the void have had
An unintended consequence.
There is no doubt we all can see
The consequence of giving up.
We simply must agree there is
No purpose in an empty 'cup'.

Because our tries to fill the void
Have come to dominate our time,
It could be much more difficult
Agreeing they must be a crime
Against humanity. But look
At the effect they have on life.
Essentially they are the cause
Of all our self-destructive strife.
Because the void is in our mind
Our tries to fill it we direct
Within, so even if the same
They are in conflict in effect.
Besides this consequence our tries
Prohibit us from "reaching out..."
That from conception to our birth
Was what our life was all about.

So though our "Why..." we cannot know,
If life is what our Mother planned,
Our tries as well as giving up
Can be rejected out of hand.
With these two out there is just one
Conclusion we cannot assault,
Our natural activity
Must be our purpose by default.
 

ATTACKS: Paris and elsewhere

Attacks in Paris and elsewhere
Were not the work of terrorists.
Nor should we publicize the claim
Attackers were first Islamists.
Defining those responsible
Though terror certainly occurred
Requires cool precision so,
"Extremists" is the final word.
Extremists are combatants in
The war on terror that's inside.
That's where we battle emptiness
A feeling we cannot abide.

We could be allies in this war
The way we were before our 'birth'.
We followed Mother Nature's Law
Like every living thing on earth.
We reached out to the limits of
Capacities designed by genes,
To others, and to Nature's God,
Without conflicting, binding memes.
It's the ideal reaction to
The void which 'Eve' uncovered when
She asked of 'Adam', "Why am I?";
Although they didn't know it then.

Instead they tried a way to fill
The void but didn't have success.
Succeeding generations tried
With more, but only left us less.
Although we try to fill it with
Religions and philosophies,
With money and the stuff it buys,
With facts and love and families,
With many occupations, and
With all sorts of preeminence,
With alcohol and drugs and sex,
Our trying more just makes less sense
Because each try diminishes
The meaning felt with the ideal.
The less ideal reaction means
The more of emptiness we feel.

We start to battle with it when
We try to fill it with a meme.
Though we add more the battle ends
When we take one to the extreme.
It matters not which meme we take.
One more extremist we will be.
Our one last try for meaning will
Cause terror in humanity.
As long as there are memes in life
Extremists will continue to
Cause terror; so to win the war
There's only one thing we can do.
Discard the memes that we've made up,
Collectively our fatal flaw.
When conflict ends we can unite
And follow Mother Nature's Law.

LIFE: a reaction to the void

the essence of life

When 'Eve' first wondered "Why am I?"
She gave birth to humanity.
He looked but 'Adam' couldn't find
The reason we were meant to be.
Instinctively he feared unknowns
So this he felt he should avoid.
He tried to fill the emptiness,
The first reaction to the void.

Till then life had been natural
And after it was mostly so
Until another asked again
Then tries to fill the void would grow.
Each growth of this unnatural
Activity forced them to find
More space for it in life and so
By need the natural declined.

Among our tries to fill the void
There's money and the life it buys.
Religious/philosophical
Responses too are in our tries.
We try with drugs, sex, games and food
And other ways to numb our brains,
Like senseless content overload,
With hope none of the void remains.
We try with love and family,
With jobs and last, preeminence.
Directed inward, tries oppose,
Thus end in deadly violence.

Besides our tries we can "give up",
With inactivity react.
It's like our tries, unnatural.
The end though is a final act.

Between these two is Nature's way,
That saves us from the two dead ends.
The natural is the ideal
Reaction needed in our blends.
With it we realize unique
Capacities as nature taught,
By reaching out to others and
To Nature's God, an innate thought.
The paths toward what we can be
Are parallel so there's no strife.
The space between is meaningful.
Together joined their end is life.

"Ideal" activity we blend
With either of the other two
In complementary amounts
That will determine why we do.
Regarding just the other two
It doesn't matter which we choose.
The more of either in our blend
The more of the "ideal" we lose.
But going in the other way
The more of the "ideal" we blend
With less of the unnatural,
The closer we're to Nature's end.

With these alternatives, it seems
To live ideally we should try.
At least we wouldn't self-destruct;
And we might answer "Why am I?"

AGE of ASININITY (rhymed reason)
ABORTION
ANALYZING CONFLICT (rhymed reason)
NATURE’S NUTRITIONAL IDEAL (reasoned prose)
RACISM (rhymed reason)
COVID-19 vie er US (rhymed reason)
ARRESTING CLIMATE CHANGE (rhymed reason)
KNOWLEDGE and ESSENTIAL FACTS (rhymed reason)
OUR HISTORY and THE LAST WHY (reasoned prose)
DEMOCRACY: the death of us (rhymed reason)
CLIMATE BREAKDOWN (rhymed reason)
ECONOMY (rhymed reason)
DEMOCRACY: a debacle (rhymed reason)
THE LAST WHY: the poem (rhymed reason)
ALCOHOL, DRUGS, SEX and other anesthetics (rhymed reason)
AGE of ENTERTAINMENT (rhymed reason)
DONALD TRUMP (rhymed reason)
MY POETRY (rhymed reason)
TOGETHER (rhymed reason)
LAW of HUMAN NATURE (rhymed reason)
RELIGION (rhymed reason)
SEX (rhymed reason)
AFTERLIFE (rhymed reason)
HAPPINESS (rhymed reason)
ALONE: an anthem for humanity (rhymed reason)
WAR on PEACE (rhymed reason)
SOLDIER’S LAMENT (rhymed reason)

FREE SPEECH

The free speech we use to deride
Those standing on another side
Life's meaninglessness to subside,
Humanity can not abide.

The speech we wish to label free
Can not divide humanity.
Divides we cause, to their degree
We cost our human unity.

Divided we will not survive.
With true free speech though we'll arrive
At unity where we'll all thrive;
Perhaps find out why we're alive.

Life: a reaction to the void
Democracy

RACISM

We know when human life began
It started in a single place,
But as groups spread around the world
They each became a different race.
Though still within humanity
Location and selection made
Some changes in appearance that
Uniting now, with time will fade.

While separate, groups reached out and
Expanded their capacity.
As facts piled up they wondered more
About the why they came to be.
Increasingly they realized
Behind the why there is a void,
And over time they sensed it was
A fact they needed to avoid.

In time they found eight ways with which
They tried to fill the void in vain
By blending two or more; but three
Will be sufficient to explain
How racism became involved.
At first to have their lives make sense
They were attributed to gods.
And then they tried preeminence.
These two combined to form a view
Believers saw in their God's sight
Our races on an upright scale
And most preeminent was white.
They further saw the colours ranged
On down through darker skins to black,
And in the separation felt
Their God had justified attack.

Though racism can't fill the void
It is part of so many tries
That as a growing consequence
We hear among the varied cries,
"Our hands are up. We cannot breathe.
Nor do we see much hope ahead.
Financial inequality
Has left us mostly walking dead."

It's not race based. Its source is tries
To fill the void with cash and stuff
It buys. The effort never ends
Since more will never be enough.
Cash also buys preeminence.
Joint efforts to get more create
A vertical economy
And our related social state.
Combined attempts to get more cash
Create a population cone,
Around the vertical supply,
We colour with each racial tone.
We suck the money from the top
Where white men grab great quantities.
Amounts they miss then trickle down,
Thus massive black inequities.

The cries evoked by racism
Are loud, but still they cause some doubt
We don't know what to do except
To march, protest, wave signs and shout.
Another hint we have no plan,
The crowds are relatively small.
To rid our lives of racism
The actions must involve us all.

The end is near impossible.
The way however, crystal clear.
Stop filling and then drain the void
Of all the memes that we hold dear.
The empty void will leave us with
Our natural activities
With which we come to realize
Our own unique capacities
By reaching out to others and
To Nature's God who doesn't see
Our different appearances
Just covering what we can be.
The vertical economy
Will by an emptied void be razed.
The colour scale will blend; and if
God is, a fair God will be praised.
Not incidentally, a razed
Economy will also mean
Though coloured skin will fade away
We'll see environmental green.

NATURE’S NUTRITIONAL IDEAL (prose)
TOGETHER