Accident of birth

Twice a day, as I wash my teeth - I pray. First and foremost, for my health, for the health of my loved ones. It is an occasion to give thanks; for my health, for what life has given me. I have written about this before. I was lucky enough to have been born where I was born, and gifted with a good education and more lucky breaks in life than unlucky ones - and conscious of that fact - and for this I give thanks to God.

Born lucky but born human; mammalian biology that shares certain traits with more basic life forms, born with the simple goals of surviving and thriving. Born human means being born with the faculty of appreciating the higher levels of consciousness, of being able to rise above animal nature. The animal in a strange herd has its eyes wide open for potential threats, for potential mates - assessing weaknesses and strengths of other individuals in the pack. Our biology makes us born judgmental. And our baser nature appeals to this; the desire to drive expensive cars or wear flashy gold watches merely to impress one's status on the herd.

But being aware of our mammalian herd instincts does give us a tool for rising above our simple biology - consciousness.

In his book The Prophet, Lebanese mystical philosopher Khalil Gibran likened parenthood to an archer letting loose an arrow. How far - and in what direction - that arrow flies is determined by the archer's aim and his or her pull on the bowstring. But once the arrow is loosed - there is nothing more the parent can do to determine where it will land or how far it will fly. In short - upbringing is all. I always found that a useful metaphor as a parent.

But what of the child? As the arrow? Are we, our parents' children, the archers' arrows - doomed to fly along that one set trajectory determined simply by where we were pointed and how strongly our parents set us off? Isn't this too deterministic vision of human nature?

Life is a journey of continuous - continual - improvement. The Polish saying "Całe życie się człowiek uczy ale umiera głupi" ('One's learns throughout one's life but still dies stupid') is incredibly fatalistic, carrying with it the same notion as of an arrow in flight which cannot change its path. Is this so?

There are moments in life when one is brought short by the inadequacy of one's thinking or behaviour in response to difficult or new circumstances; these moments offer us the chance to reflect, to learn, to step up reach a higher meta-level, closer to Godliness, and further away from base animal nature.

Being thankful for what you've got is a first step - being able to cast aside biological judgmentalism in favour of a higher level appreciation of the potential of the human spirit that resides in us all - you, me, them - everybody.

Keeping that part of the basic animal nature under control requires will, and prayer; a kind word to the lady at the check-out, a friendly dzien dobry to the postman, a thank-you to the driver who holds the door open as you run up to his bus; a smile not a scowl at those people crowded in that late-running train. Behaviour that will result in greater social harmony.