Here we are, another year past – a worrisome and difficult time for many – with 2024 stretching before us. First – thank you for following my posts over the past years. I value your support and have endeavoured to write blogs worthy of your attention. So – without further delay – here’s my last for 2023. No doubt this coming year will offer all manner of global and personal challenges, but before we become embroiled in bad-news misery, how about indulging in a whimsical game of “what if.”
What if that extinction-event asteroid never whistled in from space to smash into the earth? Would dinosaurs still be roaming around? Would they have developed smarter brains and created the sort of mayhem that we humans have managed?
Maybe in that scenario humans wouldn’t have evolved but if they had, the idea of sharing space with dumb dinosaurs never mind smart ones is alarming. The humans didn’t fare too well in those Jurassic Park movies, did they?
To avoid potential dinosaur/human conflict, what if we leave the dinosaurs to their extinction, relegated to fossilized symbols and cautionary tales about the consequences of environmental disasters. Despite having been around for about 165 million years when that asteroid came along, they really didn’t stand a chance. Now consider that our human ancestors only showed up about six million years ago. Looks like we may not have much of a chance either because we seem hell bent on using our “superior” intelligence and imagination to destroy our little blue planet. Doesn’t it seem ludicrous that we tout ourselves as the smart species, yet our extinction event will probably be of our own devising?
Scary, isn’t it? What if we’re really not smart or imaginative enough to think and work our way out of the quagmire – akin to a primeval ooze – of strife such as climate change, conflict, contaminated water, human rights violations, illness, poverty, food and housing insecurity in which we find ourselves wallowing? According to the Oxford dictionary, imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful.
While we imagine options that might ensure our survival, let’s multi-task and also take a moment to wonder what if, our human brains had developed in a way that enabled our species to be more kind and trusting? That’s a stretch, I know, but would kind, trusting humans have all our prejudices and greed. Would we have created the mess in which we now find ourselves? Instead, maybe we could have evolved into a gentle species that supported each other and maybe we wouldn’t now be facing an existential crisis.
What if we were that gentle species? Would meat-hungry predators have hunted us to extinction?
Perhaps.
But what if – like other non-predatory species – we had adapted, thrived, and managed to live in harmony with fellow creatures? That is really hard to imagine. Doe-eyed humans running from danger instead of fighting. Avoiding calamity instead of courting it.
Now here’s a conundrum. In a peaceful world, would musicians, poets, architects, and artists of all sorts have created the magnificent masterpieces that we cherish? Or does that sort of glorious imaginative effort need a counterpoint? What about scientists and inventors? What sorts of things would they have devised? What if to understand what is lovely, we must also know what is ugly? What if to be innovative we need stressors to drive invention?
Perhaps that is true, but I prefer to imagine otherwise.
What if in our make-believe world, gentle humans had created a utopia where water is clean, forests are green, meadows are filled with pretty flowers nodding in gentle breezes, and all creatures live in harmony. Does that give you the warm fuzzies?
OK then, what if we imagine living on such a planet. Given the current state of this world, that is a tall order, but a Camelot sort of place comes to mind.
Cut me some slack here, please. I know they had a whole bunch of well-armed knights running around. It’s true, at least one was into naughty betrayal and adultery and that sort of thing, but their hunts for the holy grail remain excellent allegories for well-meant quests.
Alas, Camelot fell into ruin – now just a myth – because of human lust and greed. Shame on you Lancelot and Guinevere, you two really messed up a good thing.
Even though Camelot is relegated to mythical status, its idea continues to play into our cultural narratives of morality and societal values.
What if we let our imaginations – the thought processes that landed humans in the mess in which we find ourselves – run really wild for a bit.
Speaking of wild, did dinosaurs develop imaginations? Did an ornithopod imagine the succulent taste of fresh spring ferns before buying her snout into breakfast or did she just munch away without thought because that was what she did. Kind of like me in front of the TV – mindless munch, munch munching. What about T-Rex? Did he imagine the thrill of chasing then ripping apart his prey, or did he just chase, kill, eat and do it again the next time his stomach rumbled with hunger pains?
Leaving T-Rex with his dinner, let’s return to exercising our human imaginations.
What if we used our imaginative brains to conjure a way of mitigating the horrors others of our kind have created? Well, there’s a novel idea.
What if you and I – each one of us – recreate Camelots of our own devising where the climate must be perfect all the year, where Lancelot and Guinevere don’t create mischief, where we all have the ability and will to make the small changes that will make a difference.
Are you with me at this peculiar intersection between the legacies of extinct dinosaurs – understood through big-brain scientific research, and mythical Camelot – recalled through imaginative desire? Good. Now, top up your cup or glass and share a toast:
Here’s to a year of pondering absurd ideas as we quest our own holy grails – solutions for troubled times.
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