What Living In a Forest Is Teaching Me
On The Heroic Task of Existential Joy
Never have I done anything heroic in my life. At the same time, it can be said that each and every newborn baby is a hero. You and I managed to be born against so many odds. Apparently the chances of our biological mothers and fathers getting to know each other is 1 in 20,000. This rather small chance requires to be multiplied with the likelihood of them having sex together.
Add a few more odds like environmental and biological hazards and mishaps. Then mix in the ingredients mentioned in the first paragraph. Repeat for each individual in your entire family tree of ancestors. All up, it turns out that it’s virtually impossible to end up in a human body on this earth at all. But we are! And we’re breathing and communicating. Maybe that’s why I woke up with a feeling of magic this morning.
Or perhaps it’s because the forest that surrounds me has started to seep under my skin after five+ years of living here. When you live in a forest and observe, three things stand out:
1 — Everything knows what to do.
As technified humans, we might all too easily equate ‘they know what to do’ with smooth rides and desirable outcomes. Maybe even with not feeling too much, not so many mood swings. But this is a very cerebral approach…
