ben wakeman : : Journal

Easter Bunny, Bacteria and Other Random Thoughts

March 28, 2005

I've always thought that Easter is a strange holiday if you're not a Christian, and maybe even if you are. I mean, could you have any stranger bedfellows than a ressurected savior and a bunny hiding colored eggs and delivering chocolate replicas of itself for consumption by children? All in the name of Spring and rebirth I guess. In some whacked out way the symbols all make sense, but together they sound like a short story written by someone who just discovered the metaphor, but did not get to the chapter yet on how they should not be mixed.

Easter Eggs

I like the colored eggs myself. Eggs are wonderful symbols on their own, but throw in some brilliant colors and you have something. I tend to micro-analyze everything these days since I have been reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, and the common Easter egg did not escape my microvision. I'm reading now about the beginning of life, what we know happened, and what we still don't really have a clue about. I never had any clue about the incredible symbiotic relationship we share with the billions of varieties of bacteria that surround us and live within us. It's pretty astounding when you realize how virtually indestructable some bacteria are. They can shut down and be dormant for hundreds of thousands of years and then just spring back to life when the environment is right again.

We continue to be the center of our own universe, but could it ever really be any other way? We see everything as it relates directly to us, even in light of overwhelming scientific evidence that we are simply another cog in the ecosystem, with no greater, or lesser importance than a bacteria, a tree or a squirrel. In all fairness, I suppose every organism has to be it's own biggest fan to insure it's survival. I think what makes humans wonderful is that we actually have the ability to entertain the notion that there is more to it all.