A Cynical Look at Humanity - Priming the Pump

It's winter up here in the Frozen Northlands, and that's our time of very low humidity. Whatever humidity we get, is from melting snow, not rain, nor dew. It's the time of year when my filling my fountain every day is essential. I don't want the water to run dry. If it does, it strains the motor and might break the mechanism. It's a easy thing, to add a bit of distilled water to it every morning. But at this time of the year, I can't forget to do that. The pump must be kept primed or it will creak to a stop and break. 

What do you do to prime your pump? Are you doing 
something for yourself? How about priming things 
within your interactions with others? Pumps need to 
be primed to work properly. Have your checked yours 
lately? 

Isn't that the way of relationships and interactions too? When I mail my holiday cards, I think of the person receiving each and every card. I haven't met everyone who receives my cards. I haven't even spoken to many of them. But I know them. They're friends of long-standing. They're writers of great talent, people of sarcasm and humor, pet owners and those who are owned by their pets. They're human. And in this world of inhumanity, I cherish every human being I've had the chance to know. 

Many of you who read my daily post are friends of 
long-standing. Some are newer, well on their way to 
being a member of that group. Look around you. How 
many friends of long-standing do you have? Count 
all of them. Cherish them. They are your lifeline when 
needed and they will never fail you. 

Human beings are odd creatures. Although we admit that we share a world with those with four legs and those with wings (and those with more legs than four, although we don't often think of them), we tend to think of those with two legs as the only beings on the planet. We look at our own foibles and sigh. We moan because we can't get along with each other. We refuse to look at our blood-soaked past - those times of tribal wars and small band against small band. That's our heritage. Why would things be any different as we grew populous and took over much of this planet? 

I was fascinated by dinosaurs when I was a child. I almost 
went into paleontology instead of archaeology in school 
because I loved them so much. But I'm not good at 
geology - a necessary skill to study dinosaurs - so I 
decided to study ancient man instead. 

So when people demonstrate. When they engage in conflict, large or small. When they repeat actions that had previously served as poor examples of behavior, it's not unexpected. We're stubborn, and we refuse to learn from past histories. In the geological history of this planet, we're short-term - an experiment that is going very wrong. If we don't take the entire planet down with us, Mother Nature will come up with another experiment. Perhaps her next one will be as successful as the dinosaurs. They were a success where we have failed. 

Nature keeps trying to experiment and improve, but the 
basics - basic cellular structure, the ability to live within 
the physical environment, etc - those basics are the same 
from species to species and era to era. 

So, I'm off to the pool to work off some of this cynicism. There's nothing like a good swim to improve my outlook - LOL. There are five people who will still be getting cards - the substitute ones, I'm afraid. But that's all - just five. I'm breathing a sigh of relief - my list has shortened a bit, and losing those ten cards wasn't catastrophic. Have an excellent Tuesday. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.