Risk... a love story

A few days ago I spoke about Risk being the meaning of life or whatever. Kind of over-reaching and esoteric you say? Wellllllll you ain't seen nothing yet bitches! In one since it was a Valentine's day soliloquy of the highest order. Whatever ejaculate of emotions that pour out of my loins, comes out of my heart, or head I guess, comes from me and inevitably gets splattered on this blog it seems. HOWEVER after stewing over this idea, the idea of Risk, I felt I needed to amend some thoughts on the matter. If for no other reason then to blab to the ether on why I think things happen and how there really isn't any absolute truth.

So here I go...

In the beginning there was Risk. And Risk has dominated our universe, our reality, our hyper-reality ad infinitum. If you think about it, what aspect of our daily existence - of any daily existence or non-existence is explained by nothing else than risk? Each and every one of us risk everyday, yet we don't think about it. Our lives are on the line daily. Each hour. Each minute. Each second. Every time we blink. Every time we breath.... we risk.

We risk when we drive to work in the morning. We risk when we walk down the street to grab a coffee at one of those hip, cool indie coffee shops. We risk when we eat. When we sleep. When we love. When we hate. Every choice we make, even if it doesn't seem like a choice at all, is risk. And we risk our lives. Yes we do. Because believe it or not whether or not ideas have power, which they do, bears no consequence compared to the physical application of it. The vessel in which chance, chaos and a random globular, membranous clump of cells decided to fester and grow to the point of creating the organism we call our temporary fleshy husk... ie us people, human beings, homo sapiens - a mutually agreed upon arbitrary label placed on an arbitrary species of an arbitrary world of an arbitrary solar system of an arbitrary galaxy of an arbitrary universe - this, our reality, all started with a risk. A risk that at the point of singularity... at the start of our known universe... the big bang or whatever you want to call it, there was a moment. And that moment has been the focus of human civilization since the dawn of it. How did everything start, and why? 'How' is still up for debate, 'Why' is risk.

It seems that that none of us really know how special we all are. We are the fortunate ones. We survived up to this point. Forget about the sperm and eggs that lost a seemingly forgetable battle for survival so that out of many came one and one... and that, under a mountain of significant odds against it, the two came together and formed a microscopic and cellular union which although seemed pointless and superficial at its outset, when we go with it on its beautiful journey of coming to being and, for all intents and purposes, true self-discovery (as true as 'true' can be I suppose), in THAT 'truth' is when the self-aware of us will come to utter those famous words Socrates spoke sometime ago.

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing..."

We witnesses of our cyclonic (hat tip to Jon Stewart), maybe magical, maybe erudite smattering of random accidents that chance and chaos dropped at our feet, at our time, at our place, with our intellect as it is, words can't describe. We just know it isn't, right? Beyond any scientific explanation on the matter comes the term "spiritual" which I use very carefully here. Go back billions of years. Before amino acids evolved into more complex yet infantile organisms. Before a giant asteroid slammed into our then desolate rock and planted the seeds for not only life as we know it to evolve, but gave us our moon - a God to some, a lifeforce to others, a necessity for current earth homeostasis. Forget about no surf... no LIFE - life as we know it at least. All would be breathtakingly different without our moon existing.

But let's go back well before all this. Before chance and chaos chose us and our tiny microscopic nook in the universe. Before space rocks, metal and the gravitational force of a newly formed sun converged and brought our 9... scratch that... 8 planets together. Before moments of the infinite to micromoments of the seemingly impossible or improbable. We must realize that all of that is meaningless without risk. (Or maybe meaningless period depending on your point of view.)

Now the problem with risk is that it's.... well... for lack of a better term 'risky'. There is an unknown factor to it. You don't know what is going to happen. But what you do know is that you don't know. And from that ignorance comes the consolation that the possibilities of a monumental reward are endless.... because at the end of the day, what do you really have to lose?

And so reality began with a micromoment... of..... RISK!

Sometimes my mind meandars through the caverns of the eeriliy bioluminescent, comfortably misty belly of silence and thought. Of stalagtite glazed abysses of infinity trudging through the depths of imagination and logic. What can I say, my mind wanders? I think in the facets of this singular idea of our universe being but one in series or network of universes. A multiverse. Isn't it perfectly reasonable to conclude that different rules apply in those realms? Different constants? Different science? Different thought? Different life? Different possibilities? Well, the posibilities are endless I suppose. But one thing... just ONE THING I think unites everything together. Any guesses? ;)

So while I certainly don't pretend to fully understand the mechanics of astronomy, cosmology or cosmogony in our universe let alone an infinite amount of others, I hasten to say that risk makes it real.

It is the true universal language. A metauniversal language.

It's how life on any planet in any universe will survive... and thrive.

In fact it's just one thing. Or one thought. One action. One mission. One love. Risk is Love isn't it?

And as we come down to earth and go about our daily lives and look around at the haves and have nots. Who is successful... who isn't. Who is loved. Who isn't. Doesn't it really all come down to risk?

If there is a God... isn't that what it is trying to tell us...

"Hey... you down there.... risk or die.... risk or die..."

Maybe the ancients of old were right when they wrote "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth..."

God = Risk and Risk = Love

I hear the message. I think we all do.... maybe. Hopefully.

Eh... It's ok. I love you anyway. :)