Nobody has ever been
created equal and until we mature enough to value principles as highly
as we do our more substantial possessions, no-one ever will. Genuine
equality was only possible once and that was in a past so remote and
toxic, that none of us alive today would survive it for long. This is
the rarity of an absolute truth because we now know that everything
alive had to start from a common primeval origin in a vastly different
time and place. So we blame flaws in evolution for our obvious
'discrepancies' and also for being handed down a range of senses so poor
that they only seem to underline our inherent fragility.
Our mortal enemies
throughout this 'Human' epoch in which we discovered everything,
including ourselves, seem to have fared much better than us. They were
naturally endowed with the means to effortlessly hunt us down and devour
us. Fossil records suggest long periods of human misery and attrition,
but we were never alone. We also unearth the relics of many separate
hominid species who also walked that pristine Earth, but who succumbed
to extinction somewhere along the way.
"Nature can be very
dangerous." We constantly remind ourselves. " It has always been faster
and even though largely tamed these days, it still boasts of sharper
fangs and splayed claws, a keener nose, ear and eye." Yet here we stand,
living testament to our own greatness.
The scale of our victory
against those odds is such that we can afford to be magnanimous, but our
conceit is merciless. He tells us that nature might see with superior
range and depth perception, but the key to our success was our thinking
eye.
"Our long experience of not
simply looking but also analyzing, means that we have seen much more
than what was there. We fostered the ability to also see what could or
should be there in due course. What sets us apart from nature is our
ability to apply logic and then visualize outcomes."
We willingly accept this
reassurance of our superiority and look down our short impotent noses at
the fickle nature of evolution, as it continues to mould small things
in the mud at our feet. Our promise to devote even more of our precious
time to a fuller understanding of such an obvious paradox lacks
sincerity, because we're busy. Everything waits for us.
Evolution, who is never
deaf to anyone or anything was as we observed, also too busy to take
notice or insult, and was in any case unconcerned. Our tendency for
grandiose and possibly premature assumptions is nothing new. Only
unnatural things truly endowed with some alien nature can claim to be
aloof from natural processes.
"Only these," says logic
with more than a smattering of inherent authority, "- can possess
sufficient objectivity to make such impartial and absolute judgements."
It then hesitantly asks.
"Does humanity deny that its own human nature is and always was
perfectly natural?" A question that only a human could definitively
answer, but none could be seen, even if one had the ears to hear it.
Meanwhile, Destiny stirs
the waters with the slightest of touches as she passes by and graces
each of her agents with the reward of a knowing smile for their jobs
well done.
"Come." She softly commands, and each obediently falls in line behind her.
Evolution hesitates,
surprised at such an unexpected summons before the task is complete and
is therefore the last of them to comply. Like us, evolution always
assumed endless time.
"But it is done." Destiny's
small admonishment betrays her ability to selectively hear the wish of a
sleeper on a world half a universe away, but only silence prevails when
nothing dares to speak uninvited in her presence.
"I know I seldom intervene
but here I am." Destiny says, by way of explanation and with almost
aberrant patience adding. "Also, sometimes it is the absence of some
things that can make something else more obvious."
But only one set of
thinking eyes was there to witness what a merely seeing eye would most
likely never register. The splash that marked her exit froze in time and
yellow sunlight as she waited for evolution to join her. While those
distorted drops of water hung motionless above their reflected images in
the mirror, the lack of any fluid or moving surface stilled all
glinting action.
In that snapshot of a long
drawn out moment, the wingless wet nymph only partially emerged but it
was still transformed into a beautiful imago. Its hard shell cracked
open like an egg which was then re-immersed to fall back under water.
Imago was the only moving and living thing in the frame as it simply
stepped onto a surface as apparently silvery and motionless as mercury,
and was already dry.
Evolution could only watch
bemused because a metamorphosis from nymph to final form just wasn't
feasible without the additional pupa or immature stage. The new creation
took its leisurely time adjusting to the alternative reality of life as
something so much more than a wet nymph in the brilliance beyond the
water. It disregarded half a billion years of ingrained caution and
stood as only other insects should, on the film that separated lake from
sky. Fearless of finned predators below and oblivious to the hovering
hazards of a splash rendered temporarily immune to time and gravity, it
was clearly already immortalized by being the first of a new kind.
Having achieved perfection,
Imago indulged itself with a moments reflection and then turned,
looking for some wind. It lifted lazily into the warming air to rise
above the still frozen splash that hung in suspended space-time.
Learning quickly and straightening its initial erratic course, Imago
angled towards the sun. Once it was high enough to stay dry and safe,
Destiny released the splash to fall and close the rift behind her but
forbade it sound.
In mute silence then, the
ripples spread out towards infinity from a tiny and insignificant lake
beneath the ruins of an old keep.
And so the mood is set for the epic finale ...
