Life

Life

by Steven Klimah

Misty

I am sitting here at the computer drinking loose leaf tea and listening to some Ambient music.  Bright subtle light comes in through the windows behind me. A faint breeze brushes past my arms and I begin to wonder about the majesties of life.  The idea that life is transient and I as a human being am sentient.    The Miniature Pinscher that lives with me wants to jump onto my lap.  How am I any different than her, Misty?  She is sentient and alive as well as I am.  The birds chirping outside my window seem to be no different.  The Maranta and Dracaena plants on my window sill become more alive than ever before.

 I start to stare into my tea cup.  The clear brown liquid came from plant leaves that were ripped away and forcibly dried to a certain consistency in order to satisfy human taste.  This computer was made out of chemicals and metals that came from the cores of blown up Stars or from the skin of the Earth.  Everything I seem to do or want begets a process that destroys something else or from something that has already perished.  Something must die for me to live.  Further still, something must die for me to live modernly and luxuriously.

Have you thought about dying?  Every living thing on this planet will one day die.  I will die.  Misty will die.  The Maranta and Dracaena plants will die.  The plant leaves for my salad later on will die.  For others, the lives of animals will die for their steaks or chunks or ground meat.  Life is most precious, perhaps, because every living thing might only have it once.  It's too difficult to take the chance that a  life recycles into a new one.  Or... could one life to survive another be life recycling?  Everyday is a process of new and old information.  Everyday is a learning experience.  Everyday brings on new emotions and thoughts.  A transition from the me that was alive yesterday and the me that is alive today and the me that is alive tomorrow.  I grow.    

~Steven Klimah

Note: Steven is my good friend.  He is a vegetarian who grows his own vegetables in a backyard container garden.  He has a special interest in mycology, the study of mushrooms.  Steven does origami,  Japanese brush calligraphy, and painting that incorporates origami.  He is certified in computer networking.  He's an avid gamer and anime enthusiast. Steven introduced me to the music of Shpongle, and I am now a fan.  - -Sue