This one is loaded. The question that is. Interpreted purely literally I would say Yes. As in better 'off' than 'on'. For starters species on this planet takes itself so seriously that they actually think they are a significant contributor to their own well being. THat they are the smartest of the survivors since survivors began surviving. They discount the horrors and their idiocy to be proponents of all that they have done that has lasting impact. Well - they do not talk about being lucky. Frankly their whole existence is a matter of luck and much like the Truman show entire generations have come and gone thinking they had a purpose and that they mattered when reality was far from.
I hate to be the one to stand and say that is not so. We do not matter. We never have. Its our own myopic and largely arrogant attitudes that makes us think we do. For all the so called inventions and cures, devices and technologies, revolutions and gay marriages I am not sure what we think we are really trying to do.
Advanced societies worry about matters like lost dogs and putting up bulletins when a server at a salad bar catches a Typhoid bug on their recent trip to a not so advanced place. They try to provide customer service and in turn drive loyalty whereas when you eat in a place like India you frankly have no idea what it is you are being served. What's in this? No idea sir. Cook in the kitchen has also been places and may be about to keel over but no matter - your plates may have been rinsed in recycled water - the restaurant in question may be on an eviction list for not paying bribes - et al - but you get your fixing and you feel awesome. Unless you see a rat jump out of the dessert you are about to pack you can blindly consume anything your heart desires because what you don't see cannot hurt you. The rat story is true - I had one jump out of a specialty sweet candy box in Agra (same place known for everlasting love) that it made me swear off that place.
Again the point is I am not sure what it is we do and why we do it. I think we are responsible for all the ills that ail us from variation in atmospheric chemistry to deforestation to industrial through puts so we can feed more billions that ooze out from all continents. The planet though is not weak. It puts up with dumbness all day and all night and will do what it well pleases. So for all our seismographs and skimpily dressed weather forecasters we are doomed when the planet says we are. No Apples or Google goggles are going to extricate us from this and there will not be much to write on Facebook since no one will be left to read it.
So on that bright note take a deep breath and live it up every chance you get. Your own definition of living up will do well. To me its visiting as many places on the planet to marvel at what massive geologic forces have done over centuries - to see killer whales migrate thousands of miles without any cellular technology - to eat what is known to be edible and then some not so - to seek out what is abnormal to some but might be perfectly legit in another part of the globe - to marvel at sunrises and sunsets at any point on the planet and be amazed at the fact that I wake up when the sun rises. So I can come back and blog.
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
Last line is important!
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