Author: mjl

Why Cancer? And What is it?

So why do we end up sitting in a doctor’s office with a cancer diagnosis?

First and foremost, we end up there because we know something is wrong. That message is simple and what is unfortunate is that most people don’t realize that our body has likely been telling us that there is something wrong for a long time, but we have missed those messages. Our body has spoken to us in such a manner that is so loud and clear that there is little chance that we cannot respond by any other means than approaching someone, a doctor, that can help us interpret what our body is trying to tell us.

How do we miss those messages?

We don’t know that our body is speaking to us much of the time. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t ever remember being taught or reading about how to interpret so-called body talk if that term can be applied here. Yet, after my run-in with an advanced state of dis-ease, I can now look back and see how many red flags(messages) I either missed or ignored with the help of pain medications or simple will.

In my own life, I imagine the alcohol I regularly consumed day after day helped me miss the messages that my body would have been otherwise able to communicate to me with clarity. The fatigue, headaches, and hangover feelings I associated with the drinking itself were likely my body trying to share with me the reality of what was going on beneath the surface. And what about all of the bottles of over-the-counter remedies consumed over a lifetime? Those too are not to blame but complicit in the dulling of our ability to understand that our body is likely continually communicating with us that something is not correct.

And what exactly is cancer as an entity within the body of the person, or any animal that it inhabits?

As I understand cancer, it is the endpoint of a body running out of balance for some time. Cancer does not simply creep up on anyone. It is like a tree that finally comes to its place in life where it can begin bearing fully ripe fruit of its growth and labor. Disease can be understood as a process that has many distinct states or stages along the way before it is finally diagnosed as cancer. Some would suggest that cancer is still within the intelligent control of the individual’s body, but I am not so sure that this is the case. My opinion is that it is a process that had its origins with the control of the immune system, but at some point broke free from its intelligent control mechanisms and has become an independent process that our immune system fights against like a foreign invader.

Is it productive or destructive?

This is a great question and still debatable in my mind. In one sense, it can be productive if it has not gone so far afield that the body can no longer keep it in check. However, it is always destructive because if left unchecked, it will likely be the last immune battle that a body fights before the ghost leaves the machine.

Ultimately, suppose someone diagnosed with cancer will resist a shortened span of life resulting from cancer. In that case, they will have to make a lot of changes in their lives and work towards a possible resolution.

The Virtue of Thinking Virtually

Which came first, the physical computer or the virtual computer?

A holon (Greek: ὅλον, from ὅλος, holos, ‘whole’ and -ον, -on, ‘part’) is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, as well as a part of a larger whole. In other words, holons can be understood as the constituent part–wholes of a hierarchy. -wikipedia

I look at the internet and all of the infrastructure that makes it all happen. And what I see is a virtual world that is based on the physical world that we live in. That is, we have virtualized much of our lives to free up time to do things we were too busy for before just to survive. This should mean that we should be able to look at something like Google in its totality and make predictions about certain unseen things in our natural/physical world.

Which led me to another question now that we have virtual computers. Did we ever need physical computers in the first place?

The simple answer is yes. And it seems reasonable to conclude that we needed the physical thing by which to model the virtual thing. And ultimately there does need to be a physical machine layer as a foundation beneath virtual machines. However, virtual machines are just software and a virtual computer can run within a virtual machine.

I know, I know…Couldn’t it be virtual machines all the way down?

A virtual computer is an emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures that provide the functionality of a physical computer. They provide a substitute for a real machine. They provide the functionality needed to execute entire operating systems without the need for additional hardware.

All that to say…I think that there is a lot more going on in the physical world than we are aware of. I think this way because of the model we have created that we call the internet and all of its physical and virtual infrastructure.

This brings me to another question…

Is there such thing as a ruling class? An elite society of people that might be metaphorically considered the owners of the farm we live on.

Though I cannot point my finger at one or name the names of what would functionally be a governing body of sorts, I do believe there is justification for believing in one. Here is my thinking.

Ever heard of Docker containers and Kubernetes?

Basically, cloud computing and container orchestration, at least in my opinion demonstrate to me that there is a governing body above all the nations on this thing we call Earth, even if it is not in the form of human creatures.

In my opinion, when we look at our computers/smartphones we are looking at the surface of that example. Kind of. At least it is representative of existence as we know it, even if it is only one visible factor of many; some unseen but just as real.

In this scenario, we are the programs that run on the hardware we call computers. To the programs running on that hardware computer, that physical box is its universe. Now let’s put a whole bunch of these hardware computers into the cloud.

Back in the day, this was called grid computing. It was rooms filled with physical servers that were all self-contained containers each filled with many resources that were being completely underutilized. Now if there were only some way to pool all of these resources into one large bucket or container. And the cloud was born.

And so now, based upon resources needed that grid or cloud of machines can virtually, like literally virtually become hundreds of virtual computers utilizing only the resources they need at any given time. The leftover resources remain usable in the cloud. And each of these virtual computers is now called a container. They serve our favorite applications.

But how is all of this controlled? Layers upon layers of ones and zeroes.

From the perspective of the containers(states/nations) that serve the programs/applications(people), there is an orchestration that takes place. An orchestration(Kubernetes) that the applications are completely oblivious to, yet completely necessary for the form and function of that application. Kubernetes(conductor) is the chief god that orchestrates and serves the lesser god Docker(container) who in turn serves the people(application).

Leukocytic Lifesavers & Endocytosis, Phagocytosis, and Pinocytosis

What is a leukocyte? A Leukocyte is a colorless cell that circulates throughout our vascular system and other bodily fluids that are custom built by the human body uniquely for each human to act against invaders, both foreign and domestic. We oftentimes simply refer to them as white blood cells. They are all amoeboid cells with a nucleus.

There are many players in this immune system of cells. Eosinophils, Basophils, Neutrophils, Lymphocytes, and Monocytes.

They do things like break down bacteria through a process called endocytosis, or cell eating. These are devouring cells. That is their job.

Some create antibodies to deactivate viruses, bacteria, and other things that could do harm. Some digest pathogenic fungi and bacteria through the process of phagocytosis(cell eating). Some of these are there to sound the sirens when there is something that needs to be addressed. Some help with allergic responses. And some kill cancer cells.

There are many players in this human army of white blood cells that help keep us healthy and well. And they are made in the marrow of our blood and once fully grown they are energetic little suckers ready to do the job they were created to do. These players ingest nutrients via that funny-sounding word, phagocytosis.

And they can drink too. That is called pinocytosis, sometimes called fluid-endocytosis. A means by which our cells ingest things like nutrients and hydration from around the cell. Also, a process that is used for cleansing and clearing extracellular fluids which are part of our immune system’s surveillance function.

We are not simply feeding ourselves when we put food in our mouths. It is our cells that we are ultimately feeding which is what makes the act of living a possibility. And the pleasures we experience when eating are by no means the primary value of the act, though it is a bonus for sure. And with all these things considered, we should be much more mindful about the things we are putting in our mouths.

This brings me to probably the most important point in mentioning all of this. The capturing of pathogenic and unknown substances that endanger the human organism. When these immune cells encounter something that is not a beneficial part of the overall function of the creature, they go to work eating them. Breaking down harmful things into less toxic substances for reuse or clearance including our own bodily structures that have gone beyond their useful utilitarian functions.

If you have ever heard the words autophagy or senescence you may already be familiar with this process by which our cells simply digest themselves. All of these processes work together for the overall good and homeostasis of the larger overall lifeform. Us.

So what are these lovely white blood cells being created for you ask? Like I said at the beginning of this essay. They act against invaders, both foreign and domestic. But they also work against injury caused by the foods we eat.

Ever heard of autoimmune disorders? Two different forms are abnormally low activity and then there is overactivity. Both are bad. One decreases the ability of the body to fight invaders(low), and the other attacks the body as though it is the foreign invader.

Would it be so strange to imagine your body fighting back against you if you are the one causing harm by the kind of lifestyle you are living? And it could be something you consider beneficial, like exercising a lot. Or something a little more obvious like eating fast food every day, eating carcinogenic foods, drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.

“processed meat causes cancer. Classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, it is connected specifically to colorectal and stomach cancer. Examples of processed meats that have carcinogenic properties include: Frankfurter hotdogs, ham, sausages, corned beef, beef jerky and canned or lunch meat.”

“Only marginally better for us than processed meat, red meat is classified as a Group 2A carcinogen, “probably carcinogenic to humans”. The strongest link between eating red meat and cancer is colorectal cancer, however, there is also evidence of links to both pancreatic and prostate cancer.”

https://www.aetnainternational.com/en/about-us/explore/fit-for-duty-corporate-wellness/cancer-causing-foods-cancer-fighting-foods.html

Should we really be shocked that our body would look out for its own best interest even when we don’t in ignorance?

Our body has one goal. Getting itself as far down the road as possible.

My Big T.O.E.

Welcome to “My Big Theory of Everything.”

I am an Autodidact and Systems Engineer. An autodidact is someone who is self-taught and a systems engineer is someone that stands back and examines the engineering and management of complex systems, ensuring that all parts are working together towards the common core of the whole system function.

Being the person that I am, as defined above, I by nature began studying the human body and its functionality when my body presented itself as a complex system that was not functioning properly roughly 5 years ago. When I knew that there was something wrong I took my built-in abilities and applied them to my(human) body. And so naturally, I began studying human physiology and disease pathology.

I wanted to understand how the human body functioned from head to toe, or nose to tail. Beyond that, I also wanted to understand what disease is and how I had landed myself in a state of disease.

I was not ignorant to the fact that my lifestyle choices, for many years were at the core of why my body was no longer functioning properly. I, like most people, was living in denial of what my body inherently knew was a more excellent way. I, like most people, simply liked my junk foods, alcohol, and tobacco products. But the time came when I needed to start making more sober-minded decisions with my body or my body was going to kick me to the curb. My body was in pain and no amount of pain relief was working anymore.

The first thing I did was get sober in 2016. A little over a year later, in 2017, I removed refined sugar, candy, junk food, fast food, and pretty much anything that wasn’t made fresh. And in 2018, I finally, once and for all, walked away from all things nicotine.

This was a good start towards working on, “My Big T.O.E.”

In the midst of that process, I began studying human physiology and disease pathology on a daily basis. That was a tough row to hoe considering I had no formal training on the topics prior to my body crying out for help. But being an autodidact and systems engineer made that doable. All I had to do was learn what all of the strange words in the texts I was reading meant. That took quite a while, and I am still learning every day, but it has all been worth the work. Worth its weight in gold.

All the while I kept a working journal of my progress and a log of all the different sources that I had been researching to form my understanding. I even created a website to keep it all in a chronological listing of my studies and thought processes from 2018 through 2020, located at https://fuqna.com.

In September of 2018 also started the website, https://chewdigest.com, as a place to journal my thoughts for an upcoming publication by the same name. Chew Digest. As of 2022, I have already published one volume and will continue publishing subsequent volumes as I continue to develop, “My Big T.O.E.”

Want to read more about “My Big T.O.E.?” Go Here to read more.

What is, “My Big T.O.E.?”

Part II: The reason for, “My Big Theory of Everything.” What is My Big T.O.E.? Let me try and sum it up for you.

That we humans are, in some sense, a plot of topsoil that decided it was no longer comfortable just sitting around in a picturesque garden. A plot of topsoil that resolved to get up off the face of the Earth so that it could see the world. And so it worked really hard to reshape itself into a form that would be good at walking about the face of the earth that had once been its home.

It built itself a rugged framework of calcium and an external lipid bi-layer out of its immediate elements to hold itself together and equipped itself with a minimal set of sensory organs that would be necessary to make upright bi-pedal movement a possibility. This of course took a lot of will and many millions of years, a lot of trial and error, but eventually, it paid off and patience found success. What we today call modern man.

What should a modern man eat? The same thing that a plot of topsoil would eat to remain alive and active. Primarily produce consisting of fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens. Whatever would be consumed by the micro-organisms that live in topsoil are also beneficial for life as a human. Plant-based whole foods. Why? Because those same micro-organisms we find in the topsoil of the Earth are also found within the innermost parts of our digestive tract. As above; so below. Out of the Earth, we came. From the Earth, we are made, and to the Earth, we will return.

Next time someone tells me that I am special, I will remind them that I am just dirt…8). In the meantime, I am here in this body for a number of years defined by terms like lifespan, healthspan, and life expectancy. Our lifespan is around 120 years. Our current health span is about 63 years. And our current life expectancy is about 78.5 years. To me, this is a problem that needs solving, in my mind sooner than later considering I am only 13 years away from that health span number of 63.

I am writing about this because it should be obvious that we have failed to grasp exactly what it takes to get to a full lifespan with a healthspan that aligns with one another. If we could match these two number’s up we could ditch the term life expectancy altogether. So why are we failing so badly?

I would like to suggest that we are failing because we are not yet in possession of a true understanding of just what a human body is and what it is made of. That it is still just as much of a mystery, as a whole creature, as it was 200 years ago. That what it is we are missing is a practitioner that can provide us with a more accurate understanding of the nature of who we are, why we are here, what our purpose is, and to what end?

We’ve got an amazing selection of medical and scientific professionals that can tell us many things about the area of their specialty, but what about a grand orchestrator over all of these specialized concentrations of knowledge. A person that’s purpose would be to interact with all of these areas of specialty that could understand how they all interact with each other and where excesses or deficiencies in each individual system could negatively hinder the overall progress of the whole creature. Someone like the conductor of an orchestra.

So back to my original premise. What if we are simply an extension of the topsoil we grow our foods in? What would that mean for us? To me, it could make it much easier for us to better understand the true nature of man and how to better serve man with an understanding of life that would allow us to not only live a longer life but also appreciate a fuller one by simply treating our body according to its nature. A plot of topsoil that just happened to change its shape and appearance.

A holon (Greek: ὅλον, from ὅλος, holos, ‘whole’ and -ον, -on, ‘part’) is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, as well as a part of a larger whole. In other words, holons can be understood as the constituent part–wholes of a hierarchy…something that has integrity and identity while simultaneously being a part of a larger system; it is a subsystem of a greater system. –Wikipedia

Ever find yourself feeling significantly better after walking barefoot across a field of grass? Ever wonder why this practice of walking barefoot in contact with the Earth makes us feel more at one with nature? I imagine it has something to do with the true nature of who we are and what we are made of according to, “My Big T.O.E.” Something that we somewhere forgot about along the road of progress toward who we are today.

Think about it for a moment. If we are from the Earth and all of our being is made up of the same stuff as the topsoil of the Earth, being in direct contact with it should not only be re-energizing, but it would also in a sense be a family reunion for those things living within us and the topsoil beneath our feet. To me this makes sense. At least we could then come to a better understanding of how to better address our healthspan problems. We could then simply look at the topsoil around us for answers to some of these deeper questions.

In some sense, we are the Earth and the Earth is in us as much as we are in it. Maybe this is the missing link that will ultimately help us better live our fullest life. A full lifespan of 120 years with a healthspan that matches that 120 years. And then who knows. Maybe we will find out as a result that we are not limited to 120 years.

 

Devotion to Life -1476-

Postulate – noun: A thing suggested or assumed as true as the basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief. -Mirriam-Webster

I would like to postulate that we humans, in the form of homo sapien that we can see in the mirror today, have been around for 50,000+ years. Anatomically speaking though that number could go back as far as 300,000 years. And for most of that history, we were hunter-gatherers. And then somewhere between 10,000-13,000 agriculture, herding, and permanent human settlements began to develop.

Based on these postulates and my studies on human physiology and disease pathology, I would like to suggest that there are likely a fundamental set of rules that are deeply engrained in our physical being. That if properly observed, we would find ourselves more in tune with nature and the nature of reality as we know it. That there is a natural rhythm to life here on Earth that we should be able to observe. An existence that would allow us to appreciate a fuller expression of our greatest asset, time. A life completely free of any kind of resistance, mental or physical.

That in a sense, there is a human frequency by which we would best be served to find ourselves aligned with or in tune with that would allow us to simply be in a state of flow at all times. A cruise control if you will, that allows our physical being to enjoy a full lifespan, healthspan, and life expectancy that all run abreast of each other until we draw in our final breath and exhale one last time. Maybe 120 years, maybe more, whatever that number may be. A natural, singular, universal practice that is around us at all times being practiced by all mankind to one degree or another, whether we are aware of it or not.

Some might call this perfect practice a state of flow or being in the zone, while others may refer to it as zen where one’s actions are not a result of conscious effort, but of intuition and calm attentiveness.

I do believe this to be the case and find that the more time I spend devotionally dedicated to understanding this quality of nature, the more at ease my whole person becomes. Does nature have some kind of divine expectation of us? I do not think so, but there does seem to be benefits to aligning oneself in a devotional manner towards life in all of its ways. I am one with nature because I am a part of nature. The elements that make up the whole of my body have been here on Earth since it was formed and they will remain here long after my body ceases to function. When death actually catches me. When it is no longer behind me.

As such, it has been my observation over the last handful of years that death is not something in front of us, but something that is behind us. Every day, every hour, every minute and moment we live and breath, the life we have continues to be spent and it is death that swallows that life we leave behind. We have nothing to fear about death because it is patently clear that we will all run out of life, ultimately being swallowed up in death; a life fully spent. The question is, how much richer will death be once my life is fully spent?

Death is not to be feared because it is not in front of us, but behind us. We do not have to be mournful of death lest we spend our time looking back to a time already spent.

And so I choose to live a life looking only upon life, that which lay before me where fear cannot conquer. Our future is hope, and today is life. This very moment is life and we are as rich as we will ever be in every breath we take.

But in the meantime, I want to see this problem solved. I cannot imagine any good reason our healthspan cannot be on par with our lifespan other than our simple ignorance of what we need to be doing differently. But of course what does that look like. What is it that we are doing that is affecting our healthspan so greatly as to limit it to only a little over half of our lifespan?

Aside from the obvious implications of diet, I am beginning to suspect that sufficient levels of electrolytes in balance could be the greatest factor overall. Could part of this longevity paradox be solved by simple and continual monitoring total systemic electrolyte balance and sufficiency? Wouldn’t that be wild? I imagine a day when we will someday be able to swallow something the size of a piece of rice that would be able to move its way through our gastrointestinal tract once or twice per week that would interact with an application on our smartphones that would tell us what we need to adjust the following week.

I bring this electrolyte issue up because of my own recent journey into raw veganism that was marked by a predominance of fruit intake. As a diet, it made me feel good. But it never felt fully sufficient. Something always felt like it was missing. And when I began adding Dead Sea salts into my diet, that feeling that I was missing something went away. It was a test that spoke volumes to me.

Clearly, sufficient electrolyte intake is important, but just as important is the balance of the electrolytes within our body. Too much of any one kind will mean that our body then needs to remove the excess to maintain balance. Fortunately, our kidneys are built just for this purpose. The way this manifests itself is in us needing to urinate more frequently as this is the path by which our body removes specific excess electrolytes to maintain balance.

If we consume foods that contain too much potassium and not enough sodium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and chloride, then our body will balance itself by shedding the excess potassium in a urine solution along with the excesses of plasma from our body’s vascular and tissue fluids which amount to about 16oz. or 1/2 liter per day. And this is why too many electrolytes in our diet result in excess urinary production and dehydration. If the body is constantly having to remove an excess of any of its required electrolytes our body will be constantly drawing from our proverbial hydration storage tanks. This is why drinks like Gatorade are so hydrating even though they contain electrolytes.

Clearly, the foods we are eating are important, but maybe we are misunderstanding what it is about the specific nutrients that determine our overall health and wellness. Maybe the answer is found in maintaining sufficient and balanced electrolytes within the overall creature(human) as in some sense a pre-requisite to all things consumed.

On a side note, I really don’t want to overcomplicate my understanding by separating out the balancing of electrolytes as something separate to do from eating. I just can’t imagine that someone living before the 1900’s even asking a question like this or even trying to formulate a formal understanding of one in light of but separate from the other. They were still in such a place that they were just worried about not starving. Not what color salt would be best for them or their fancy dietary regime. What I am having is an internal narrative of someone living in a virtual lap of luxury that most did not share the pleasure of just some 120 years ago. The problem of privilege is a great place to start when exploring the frontier of future generations and the knowledge powered by modern technological advancement.

And so we need to find that state of flow in that river of life which will lead us to life’s fullest end, whatever amount of years that might be. There is no good reason for us to be failing so miserably, making it only to a miserable 78.5 years.

P.S. I don’t believe we have ever truly lived in an Edenic state where everything was perfect and in harmony followed by a fall and a loss of orthodox practice. My research leads me to believe that we are mere infants in our progress and understanding of how the human creature functions and that state we call Eden lay ever before us. That we will continue getting closer to that state as we continue to simply live life simply. Yes, it is fun for someone like me to explore these deeper questions, to find better answers for the following generations. Answers for my kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren. I would love to see my generation be the one to overcome all of the health problems that I see plaguing the human race, but I am not so naive as to actually have any expectation that it will happen. But the least I can do is continue preparing the way for those who come after me.

Conversation With a 12 Year Old Me

I was doing some Uber driving the other day and someone asked me what I would tell a teenage me if I could go back. I kept it simple and told them that I would say 3 simple things that would be easy for any teenager to remember.

    1. Eat only when the sun can shine on it. 6 am to 6 pm.
    2. If you eat something one day, do not eat it the next.
    3. Eat 100% whole-food/plant-based. No animal.

Of course, if I could do that and had thoroughly convinced that younger version of me to do these three things, I wouldn’t be here writing this today. I wouldn’t have had to suffer through the last 4.5 years of recovery from bad decisions that led me to an advanced state of disease.

If I could go back and convince that younger me to live life the way I do now I would have never learned the things that I have given me the life experience and subsequent knowledge that has the potential to help a world full of people do the same as I have. Recover their health just as I have mine.

“I could have missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss the dance.” A line from the 1990 song, The Dance by Garth Brooks. Never have any more true words been spoken as I write this short essay. I could have missed out on this pain, but then I would have never had the opportunity to become the person I am today, nor would I have the future that lay before me as a result of that experience.

So in that sense, I am in some way grateful for all of those decisions that ultimately led me to be the person I am today. And that brings me joy knowing that I can now speak from a place of experience that can help many more people than just a younger version of me. And who knows what kind of impact that will have.

Maybe it will be one of my children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren that I am able to help in the same way because of my experience. Maybe it will be a whole host of people from all around the world for many generations to come long after I have breathed my last breath. Maybe it will be you; whoever you are that is reading this.

I do believe that I am here for a purpose. I imagine that my existence alone is that purpose and that I am currently serving out that purpose even now as I am typing this short essay. Maybe that purpose is to scavenge the excess oxygen produced by organic plant life on Earth in contrast to the organic life on Earth that sequesters the carbon we exhale with every breath we take.

Of course, my self-esteem or sense of self-importance would like to think I am still just warming up for something greater that is yet to come. There’s just something about my personal identity that wants to believe I’m still yet to arrive at the plate to hit my grand slam out of the park. Until then I am just going to keep writing every day. I will keep banging away at this keyboard until I have mastered this form of communication. If it takes 10,000 hours then so be it. Maybe it will take less.

My goal at this point is to author a whole series of books on how to avoid diseases of any kind. A series of books that will be understandable by young and old alike. A series that will keep people from having to suffer the same fate that I did. Words that will move people to action. To a life of more sober-minded decisions that will ultimately change our future generations of life here on Earth without having to depend on pills or technology.

A simple life. A life of ease, rather than disease.

 

More Aglet Please

Just how badly have we missed the microbial mark and what influence do these microflorae have on the overall balancing act we call life in our goal to make it to 120 years of age with a body that looks and feels no more than a robust 24?

Lifespan, healthspan, and life expectancy. Is any one of these more important than another? A long lifespan is not something I would enjoy if I were hindered from doing whatever I liked because of some physical impediment that I could have avoided. And this is where healthspan comes into play.

Currently, it appears that the human lifespan is about 120 years. In the United States, the current life expectancy in 2022 is about 78.5 years with a health span of about 63 good years of life without many physical limitations. So then what changes over time that results in a decline in functionality and better yet, can that decline be averted? I would like to think so.

Clearly, there will come a time in everyone’s life when there will be some form of decline in functionality. So what is stopping us from extending that decline or at least pushing it back to our 120th birthday or more?

It is us that are keeping this from happening. Our body has the functionality within it to make it to 120 years of age. And I am beginning to suspect that it is the overall condition of the microflora, primarily found in our intestinal tract that is the major contributing factor that determines how close we get to that end of 120 years. And if it is that microflora that is the mediator of that overall healthspan functionality, then what do those microorganisms need to get us to that fullness of life?

The microflora that lives on us and within us is much more at the forefront of our minds than it was just one generation ago. In all the years I spent in school I can’t say that I remember hearing anything about it at all. Yet a deviation in the functionality of this mass of living organisms about our being can have grave consequences in the individual creature.

Our body is a complex system. Within that individual system, there are many complex subsystems that are also complex within their own discrete functions. And yet I can see that we are very little different than a plot of topsoil that somehow figured out a way to wrap itself in a lipid bilayer, what we call skin so that it could get up and wander about the Earth.

Nonetheless, here I am again with this question. What are we doing wrong?

If our life was a shoelace, one of the most important aspects of the health span of that shoelace is the aglet at the end of the lace. Those little metal or plastic tubes that are affixed tightly around each end of the lace. A happy, healthy aglet makes for a well-functioning shoelace. Of course, the lace can always break somewhere in the middle, but barring that kind of failure those little aglets will ultimately determine the overall length of the functionality of that lace.

I suspect that our life is much like this aforementioned shoelace. If it is not overused it will last much longer than one that is abused by overuse. A shoelace can fail from overuse long before the aglet fails and in like manner our human body can fail long before our body loses the ability to regenerate the cells that ensure a full health span of 120 years.

So are we wearing out the aglets of life or abusing the lace of life that results in mechanical failure? Maybe both.

Post image by Ian W. Fieggen – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3716706

Why Are We Here?

I do not believe that we are here by chance. I believe that we are here as a mutual response to counteract or balance another aspect of existence within life on Earth as a whole.

Microorganisms like bacteria, yeast, fungi, protozoa, and helminths are among the many lifeforms that make up the zoo that lives on and in me and you. And they all serve distinct purposes, within the overall human experience we call life. In simple terms, they exist to consume that which is no longer beneficial life. They are here to clean up the messes that life leaves behind. They are in the business of bio-remediation. They occur naturally as an intentional function of existence to break down pollutants in any given environment, consuming that which would otherwise pollute the greater complex system we call our body. They are a beneficial part of our greater overall existence as humans as we humans are to the greater world we live in.

We can use this example of our internal ecosystem to better understand our own existence within our greater external environment. Each one of us 7.9 Billion human beings that currently inhabit the world we live in plays a role similar to one of the individual microorganisms mentioned in the prior paragraph. We too are consumers of foods that are no longer living. Our consumption breaks these complex nutrient sources down into simpler components that our greater environment will use once again at a later time. We call this the cycle of life.

Another example of this is the relationship between human life and plant life.

Green plants along with other organisms create what we call food by consuming carbon dioxide and water. The result of this process is the production of oxygen.

Humans on the other hand consume these foods that are a result of this process for use as energy for all of our cellular processes required for life. The byproduct or result of that digestion and assimilation at the cellular level is the production of carbon dioxide that we then exhale back into the atmosphere that is then used as food by the plants. And so the cycle continues on.

But which came first? The plant or the human? Or did they both grow up together within the greater environment, both acting as cofactors in a greater process in the circle of life? I suppose I will eventually get around to addressing that question too. Maybe at this time my understanding and thinking are still too juvenile. It is possible that humans and plants are just two of many more life forms that serve some greater role still yet to be observed or defined.

Some would simply say that we are here at the pleasure of our creator. And I would agree. But how do we define that creative force, nature, and will that some simply call God? Maybe we humans within the greater context of our existence and environment are little different than those microorganisms that make up our gut. Yet we believe that we are so much more intelligent than a single or multicellular organism. But what if that is a mistake and simply a story we’ve created to make ourselves feel better about our existence? And who’s to say that those microscopic lives whose cycle is only but a breath compared to our own as a human is any less than our own?

Wouldn’t that be wild if fungi had stories that they told their budding yeast buddies to help them better understand the gastrointestinal world in which they live, thrive, and find their being? Clearly, they too have a form of consciousness, just like we humans do. They are awake and aware of their surroundings just like we are, which is the definition of consciousness.