HRV, RHR, REM, BRPM, She, etc. ??

Continuing on "The Weight of a Life That Matters", let's explore further along the line of how best to take care of our physiology or, at the very least, have a way to track how we are doing so that the rest of our journey is still fun and relatively free of the usual concerns about fitness and general well being for those among us of a certain age. So let's get right to it.

Those are all acronyms in the title, the first one is likely the least known - 

(HRV) Heart Rate Variability  - but we'll get to it later.  REM, you're likely familiar with because it stands for Rapid Eye Movement and it is the most essential of all our sleep cycles. It is during that time, our dream cycles, when our brain does all the sorting of our memories, regulates our emotions and more importantly,  sharpens our  cognitive functions.

What this means is that our physiology begins and ends with how well our brain is working.  It is the central processing unit (CPU) that regulates and controls everything that is happening to our body - from growing  fingernails to producing insulin, how we feel warmth or cold, discerning the differences between ideas or arguments, to producing red blood cells, etc. It can do that because this particular CPU has 90 billion neurons to rely on that can do 100 trillion connections at a time. To give you an idea of the enormity of that capability, try to imagine counting one connection per second. You will still be counting for the next 30 million years; your brain makes those entire connections at a moment's notice.  It comes with a price, of course. For a body part that is a mere 2% of our body weight, it consumes 20-25 % of all the calories that our body processes from all the nutrients that it consumes. 

Now, the super computer that beat Kasparov in chess was one roomful of interconnected computers, manned and maintained by several technicians and engineers, air conditioned to low room temperature settings and consumed several hundred watts per minute. Kasparov's brain weighed a mere three pounds, powered by what he had for lunch and dinner.

So, first things first.  We need to take care of our brain. It does not demand much. Proper diet is good. But what it needs the most, fundamentally and by necessity, is a good night's sleep. But what is a good night sleep? A decade or so ago short of a laboratory setting, electrode attachments and other monitoring tools, there was little the average person can do to collect and retain data on basic breathing and heart functions when our bodies are physically stressed during exercise or when at rest. More on this in a bit.

Now, our body is a machine and runs like an engine. Our nose, mouth, and trachea make up the air intake manifold. Air exchange is done by the lungs where red blood cells carry oxygen that is pumped through the heart to mix with fuel (food and/or drinks) during digestion and waste in our blood is filtered by the kidney. If we allow our brain a good rest and recovery, exercise our heart and keep our kidneys at optimum filtration capacity we shall have achieved  more than half of what is required for proper maintenance. It is a given that every body part is essential; however, the brain, heart and kidneys are the super parts. This takes us to the acronyms in the title of this blog.

Almost three years ago I parlayed some amount with a purchase of a smart watch.  It was not the most expensive by any means but I was quite surprised at what it is able to keep track of.  Actually, all I needed it for was to keep track of the number of laps and the time it took me to swim 1000 meters in the pool. Before that I merely counted the laps in my head and  check the time it took me to do it on my old watch.  This new watch, however, will also track a lot of other data not related to swimming. It can be used for tracking walking steps and running and even for golf, once the golf app is downloaded to your phone.

First the swimming part. Once set with the proper length of the pool it counts the laps for me automatically and records not just the total time but time for every 100 yards, best and slow time per lap, number of strokes, average stroke per minute and per length, speed in mph, the average heart rate and recovery time in hours. Based on my age, which is part of the input it kept on record, it advises me a recovery time  of 24-26 hours, which actually means I need to rest for at least one day before swimming again. I assume if I were younger I could probably swim everyday. Below, one of several stats the watch downloads to my phone.

Then here is the other data it tracks and keeps. The watch is linked to my phone and all throughout the day it tracks a lot of stuff that includes the number of walking steps.  For example, even though walking is not an exercise regimen for me, it still tells me that on average I managed 6-7,000 steps! 

Here comes the HRV. It is a measure in milliseconds of time between heartbeats.  Now, there's no universal "good" or "bad" HRV number'. However, that number tends to decline with age. The number can get lower between heartbeats which means a slightly faster normal heart rate.

Age Group Typical Range (ms)

20-29 40-80

30-39 35-70

40-49 30-60

50-59 25-50

60+ 20-45

Important: These are approximations. Someone with an HRV of 25 isn't necessarily unhealthy, and someone with an HRV of 90 isn't automatically in great shape. Your personal baseline is what matters.

• Age (HRV naturally declines with age, and ranges differ for children)
• Fitness level (trained athletes typically have higher HRV)
• Genetics (some people naturally run higher or lower)
• Sex (women often have different patterns than men)
• Health conditions (various conditions affect baseline HRV)

To paraphrase, a higher HRV - longer elapse time from one heartbeat to the next - means that  a high HRV means a lower heart rate as to be working less than a faster one given the same set of conditions. But that is not all that matters. Resting heart rate (RHR) is a much better gauge.  Given the same conditions, a lower resting heart rate indicates that the heart does not need to beat fast to push or pump the same amount of blood while at rest so that there is still a lot of head room when vigorous exertion is needed.

Tour de France cyclists are known to have RHR at between 35-40 beats per minute. A Guinness world record is 28 for one older gentleman who apparently by mere genetics was endowed with a rare, slow running heart when at rest.

The benefit of exercise, swimming in my case, results in my low RHR of a daily average of 50 beats per minute and an average high  of 113 while swimming. The watch also records during sleep my breaths per minute (BRPM). "Vigorous" times, expressed in minutes, indicate level of exertion on a daily basis.

The bottom line is that a smart watch like this is and should be an investment in your health to keep track of some activities that may matter for proper assessment. I think it's a good investment.

For general guidelines in day-to-day maintenance of our health I came up with the last acronym in the title above - 'She'. It stands for Sleep, Hydration and Exercise.

Sleep, as mentioned earlier, has a profound effect on brain health and cognitive ability.  (Refer to my earlier blog - To Sleep Perchance to Dream). Hydration or our intake of the proper amount of water everyday, typically 8 cups per day, deserves our special attention.

Just a few years ago my primary care doctor referred me to a renal (kidney) specialist because based on my blood work results my eGFR was 1-2 points below the minimum. The acronym stands for estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate. Factoid: Today, there are 10,840 stand-alone dialysis centers (excluding those in hospitals) in the U.S., making it almost the largest health-related "cottage industry", second only to the number of urgent care clinics nation-wide at 11,900.  Kidney disease has become a a serious chronic disease. Today it is estimated that there are 100,000 patients waiting for donor kidneys on a wait list of three years or more.

"When looking at your eGFR results, a higher number is better. In general, an eGFR value lower than 60 is a sign that your kidneys may not be working properly. An eGFR lower than 15 is a marker of kidney failure".

Today, there are 37 million Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) that come in 5 stages, although the last one is the one that is critical (likely to need a transplant).

This takes us to proper hydration. Not too long ago I was at my renal doctor's office for my check up. She sees me once a year as she monitors and assesses the results of my bloodwork. I mentioned to her that recently I started closely monitoring my water intake and I realized how far off I was with my hydration when I started monitoring via the same app as on my cellphone that picks up data from my watch.  She told me to have another blood work in a month to see what my eGFR is going to be, now that I am strictly keeping to an 8 cup regimen of water intake. I start my morning even before breakfast or coffee with two glasses of lukewarm plain water. Much of my hydration, as recommended, is consumed in the first half of the day - 5/6 cups before lunch.  I do not count the 2 cups of coffee.

Sure enough my eGFR greatly improved (the higher the better, 60 being the bottom floor).  I mentioned this to my primary care doctor two months later during my annual physical. Along with my routine blood work, she ordered an eGFR test as well.  The result was another above 60 reading. For my age that looks fine to the doctors. However, 90 and above is what is expected of young kidneys and the range of 60 and above but below 90 can be an early onset of chronic kidney inefficiency.  As we get older maintaining an above 90 reading is an uphill effort for kidneys.  Doctors therefore look at anything over 60 for the older folks as acceptable.

Anecdotally, not a scientific finding or statement by any means, I would like to believe that perhaps all I needed all along was proper hydration. And, believe it or not, hydration is likely the one less likely given the same attention as we do with diet and exercise in most people's hectic modern life.  So, drink water conscientiously at 8 cups per day.

Exercise by almost universal acclimation is needed so we will not spend any more time on it.  Instead, let's pay attention to the brain - especially towards how best we can keep it healthy as we travel through the latter years.

For a very long time it was believed that we're stuck with the number of neurons at birth, then we tend to lose some to a diminishing number of about 10 per cent in old age.  But there is good news of late.

"In 1962, scientist Joseph Altman challenged this belief when he saw evidence of neurogenesis (the birth of neurons) in a region of the adult rat brain called the hippocampus. He later reported that newborn neurons traveled from their birthplace in the hippocampus to other parts of the brain. In 1979, another scientist, Michael Kaplan, confirmed Altman’s findings in the rat brain; and in 1983, he found special kinds of cells—called neural precursor cells—with the ability to become brain cells like neurons, in adult monkeys".

Considered at first to be true only in animals it is now believed that we can grow new neurons. It is still new in the field of neuro-science but according to Science News Today:

"The adult brain is not a static organ but a living, changing system, capable of reorganizing itself, forming new connections, and, in specific regions, generating new neurons. This remarkable capacity is known as neuroplasticity".

"Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change its structure and function in response to experience, learning, environment, and injury. It operates at multiple levels, from molecular changes within individual neurons to large-scale reorganization of entire neural networks. Through neuroplastic processes, the brain adapts continuously, sculpted by how we think, move, feel, and interact with the world. This adaptability is not a rare or exceptional phenomenon; it is a fundamental property of nervous systems".

My wife had commented once that even though English is my second language I write better with it now than from way-back-when since  the day I retired (2007). I said that is because I never stopped learning the language; my curiosity level remained high on any subject along with the yearning to keep learning about a host of other stuff deemed to be in a class of so called useless information, i.e. knowing that there is such a thing as "the average muzzle velocity of a sneeze" *.  Actually, I have news for everyone.  There is no such thing as useless information as far as the brain is concerned. To the brain, knowing or processing information is what it wants to do. Denied of new information, nothing to work on to stimulate it, or be entertained by it, the brain loses interest to the point of stagnation. 

I said in one of my earlier blogs that the universe is made up mainly of three components: matter, energy and information.  The brain needs all of them: gray matter that it is made of, energy to keep it going,  and information to keep it entertained, uses it, stores it  and disburses it.

As the saying goes, use it or lose it.

Keep it entertained and it will serve us all well.

* The average muzzle velocity of a sneeze is about 70 miles per hour. The idling hypochondriac brain hears it and asked: "What? What happens then when someone sneezes in a roomful of people at the doctor's waiting room? What if it was in a full elevator?

"The Weight of a Life that Matters"

Born on May 30, 1929, Nancy K. Schlossberg is one rare 95 year old lady who today continues to inspire and encourage not just those of us of a certain age but everyone - young and old - faced with the constancy of life's changes, challenges and the inevitable transitions we all go through - particularly that of facing the inevitability of aging.  She has written ten books that include, "Too Young to be Old", "Revitalizing Retirement" and "Retire Smart, Retire Happy".

What caught my attention is this one little quote from her:

"The goal is not just to add years to life, but to ensure those years still hold the weight of a life that matters."

That led to the present participle 'mattering' (as in English grammar) embraced by modern psychologists:

"Mattering is defined by researchers as feeling valued by ourselves, our family, our friends, our colleagues, and society — and then having an opportunity to add value back."

Ms. Schlossberg is Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland. After her husband passed away in 2011, she had wanted to move to a retirement community and perhaps to transition later to an assisted living facility but her son told her that she was too young for that.  Thus began her motivation to inspire people in dealing with the inevitable changes that each one of us must go through at every stage of our lives or how to transition from one  to the next.

The timeline of her life is quite remarkable when we consider that she was a newborn when the stock market crashed in 1929 which ushered the Great Depression; she was just six years old when the Social Security Act (SS) was enacted; she was not even a teenager when the second World War began; she was a teenager when the boom years started (birth of the baby boomers); and she was an adult to witness the unprecedented growth of the country  and the USA's rise to economic and military dominance from the late 50s. 

Her generation, commonly referred to as the "Silent Generation" - with the surviving numbers  getting leaner with each passing day - is characterized by traditional values and work ethic, known to "prioritize stability and security in their personal and professional lives". Their contribution to post WWII economic growth was measurably significant.

I guess we need to listen to her.

"As a 96-year-old psychologist who has spent decades studying life transitions, Nancy K. Schlossberg has found that the most difficult shift isn't retirement itself, but the decades that follow. In co-leading a group called 'The Aging Rebels' in Sarasota, Florida, Schlossberg has observed a recurring theme among those in their 80s and 90s - the 'freedom paradox', where total autonomy can lead to a sense of feeling marginalized and disconnected."

What she found in her studies was that often when retirement comes for the many who used to dream about the freedom that is presented by the euphoric prospect of not having to go to work everyday has its own challenges. After having done all the traveling (for those who can afford it) and when every bucket list was checked off, the activities or inactivity of a randomly structured life are not completely free of complications; or, if not complicated, boredom can be an inexplicably annoying intrusion.  Indeed, for some, freedom becomes a confusing paradox in the absence of structure.

The common theme of her books is, of course, all about coping with life's transitions along the chronological order; otherwise known as the aging process. If we begin the chronological order at the moment of retirement we find all kinds of life changes that involve financial planning, health management, social adjustments, loss of a loved one or caregiving to a loved one, just to list a few.

".. as we age, that freedom can quickly turn into a sense of feeling 'marginalized' without a clear purpose or reason to get up each day. One former nurse in Schlossberg's group described the relief of no longer having schedules or responsibilities, yet also feeling a loss of connection and competency. Schlossberg suggests that to navigate this transition, we must look past the 'bucket list' and focus on finding ways to 'matter' - to feel noticed, cared for, and depended upon."

I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about a similarly themed subject that the price to living longer is to grow old. And to grow old is to face the reality that the once youthful and vibrant machinery that is the human body must deal with all kinds of maintenance checkups and mitigations. Not too long ago Ms. Schlossberg humorously quipped, “First of all, I’m 94, so you do spend a lot of time running from doctor to doctor, and it becomes a part-time job.” 

What are we of a certain age going to do?

1.) The relief of no longer having schedules or responsibilities can bring a feeling of loss of connection and competency. Folks who are physically able find volunteer work a wide path from which one may find access to social connections, new friendships and to common issues and pathways ordinarily not found or explored.  There is one pitfall to avoid - prolonged immersion in social media to the point of obsession. Keep track of the time spent on social media indulgence against  actual physical activities.

2. Pick up your curiosity level to that when you were a young child.  The brain wants to stay busy, so keep it doing exactly that. There is a difference between being a passive scanner of information and an active searcher of it and it is never too late to know more about how the solar system works, how  jet plane propulsion is different from propeller driven aircraft or just how it is that a plane flies at all? How is a rechargeable battery holding and keeping energy different from water behind the Hoover Dam? This may seem facetious to us but the brain does indeed want to know.  Actually, think back to when you were a child when you were full of why-after-why questions.  Where did all those level of curiosities go? What better time to pick them up than now when you have all the time in the world.

3. Don't forget to express your gratitude openly. It is one thing "to think about it", it is another to verbally say it to your loved ones and to friends.  Most of all, and this is important - express it directly, according to your faith or belief system - to a higher power because if you are convinced that you are a creature then there is ample reason to acknowledge the existence of the Creator.

4. Acknowledge each morning that each time you wake up and get out of bed is an everyday prelude that is not so easily achievable for some, even impossible for others.  Every morning is a gift to be opened, the whole day is another extension.  We might as well use it.  

5. If you are a caregiver to a spouse, a sibling, a parent or child, consider yourself the fortunate one first. Second, embrace the nobility of caregiving.

6. While taking care of our physical health is a given, devote as much time to taking care of mental and emotional health. 

7. Worried and fearful like this cat?  I wrote four years ago, after Covid, on January 1, "2022 and Managing Our Fears"

 

"How then should we manage our fears? We don't. We use fear to stay vigilant and careful, to instill discipline and to avoid doing stupid things. And Yoda would say, "Worry, however, we should not". Worrying is like treading water. You could expend a lot of energy doing it but it gets you nowhere. So, you might as well swim and go somewhere.

Still anxious over anything and everything? I have four words. Be like the cat below and "Don't Worry About It"

And gain on the weight of a life that matters

 

 

What Makes You Really You

"Through the eyes of the beholder" describes one's  perceptions of anything or anyone, often to differentiate it from how another person may perceive the same.

You are one person in the eyes of one but you could be a different one in the eyes of another; or, you can be the same person to many but you are never one person to all. Nevertheless, you are one person different from the next one.

Dr. Seuss said it best.

What you are to others is one thing.  What you are to yourself is another. This takes us to one truly unique ability that allows us to reflect on our thoughts and feelings that, as far as we know, is uniquely human - a highly complex form of self awareness where some animals are only capable of basic self-recognition.

While there are varying degrees of self awareness among certain species, we have the most advanced cognitive abilities to not only have an acute sense of self  but also to have developed a conscience as an individual and the collective sense of morality and ethical behavior as a society. 

The question is how did all of these come about? How did consciousness develop from a collection of otherwise inanimate mass of tissues, bones, fluids, blood and blood vessels, cells, molecules and atoms? You are self aware, have consciousness but none of any of your anatomy actually recognizes you.  Imagine looking behind your two eye sockets, through the lens, past the cornea and  iris, to view the world around you, and you wonder who is this entity that is doing the viewing? Actually, the upright images that you think you see are actually projected to your retina upside down:

Now, you know the brain is the one doing the correction.  It interprets it for you.  Wait. Where are you  in the midst of all of these?

Before we attempt to answer that question, let's first realize that physiologically you are not for the most part the same person that you were ten years ago. You shed your skin every 2-4 weeks. A good part of the dust that you see and clean up in your house is human dead skin. The cells of the lining of your intestines are refurbished every 2-3 days. Your red blood cells last only for about 120 days, so you get new ones every so often. You, if you still have a set of thick hair, get new hair follicles every 3-7 years while your entire skeletal system gets renewed with new bone cells every 10 years, approximately. 

You have trillions of cells in your body but what you have today are not exactly the same cells yesterday.

Suffice it to say that the physical you is not the same as the conscious you. The only part of your physiology that remains unchanged, except for maybe 10 % of it, are the neurons in your brain.  And you have oodles and oodles of them. So, is that where the real you is then?  But each individual cell in your neurons does not know you. So, it must take the entire clump of them that gives you self awareness and consciousness.  They make you you.  But how?

First this. Physiologically, you are mostly water (hydrogen and oxygen as H2O), carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, about 99 % in all. Individually, down to the atomic level, none of them knows you, yet you are this discrete being different from the next one. Speaking of down to the atomic level, every electron that orbits every proton in an atom is exactly the same electron found in every element in the universe. In other words, every electron is identically the same as the next one, regardless of whether it is in an atom in  molecules of water, watermelon seeds, the venom of a black mamba, or what is in granite or high carbon steel, etc.

So, at the electron level, we are all identical - electron by electron as with the entire universe, so to speak.

The thoughts that you currently have while reading this, then glancing away to look at the four walls, or out the window, or trying to take in what you just read, are what make up your consciousness.  You just know it is you reading. This prompted 17th century philosopher and thinker  Rene Descartes to say, "I think, therefore I am".

Eventually, what you are doing or thinking will end up in your subconscious mind.  You are what you think you are and you know that everything around you, including those already set in  your memory, and everything you know about people and stuff, and doing things with as little effort to think about how or why become part of your subconscious.

"Neuroscientists say that our subconscious mind is much more powerful than our conscious mind".

Powerful, yet it has no physical attributes that you can physically measure, weigh or touch. It's just that one discrete entity behind those two eye sockets.  But, it is you or colloquially, "You are It" .

There must be a lot more to this conscious and subconscious stuff. One of the greatest mysteries of consciousness or some kind of derivative of consciousness are stories about near death experiences.  These are about cases of people recalling what they saw or hear while clinically dead and  resuscitated afterwards.  There are differences and similarities between many of the stories, although the scientific community has doubts and have often come up with explanations rooted in psychology and natural brain activities.  There is no scientific proof or verifiable explanation of a single incident that is beyond doubt. To this day, there is no scientific basis that near death experiences (NDEs) constitute proof of life after death.

Then there are cases of out of body experiences associated with NDEs. One exceptional case, among many that had been written about, was that of Pam Reynolds Lowery, from Atlanta Georgia. She had a brain aneurysm at the brainstem and that she was not likely to survive if surgery was attempted to remove it. However, one brain surgeon did the surgery by lowering her body temperature to 50 deg F, stopped her heart and breathing and drain the blood from her brain completely to preclude rupture, her eyes taped shut and headphones over her ear that emitted "loud clicks to block auditory input". 

"Pam reported witnessing her surgery from above the doctor’s shoulder, describing specific details about surgical tools and conversations that she could not have observed through normal means. Cardiologist Michael Sabom, among other experts, has found her account persuasive, believing it adds to evidence of consciousness persisting beyond clinical death, despite skepticism attributing such experiences to anesthesia awareness".

Pam not only survived the surgery, she lived for many more years after that.

Until such time that NDEs and out of body experiences can be verified by science beyond any doubt, those shall remain in the realm of the unexplained.

After having read all of the above, and having given it some thought, won't you agree that there is no question that you being you is one of the greatest wonders of the world, much of it you don't know how and least of all, why?   There's a lot in there I inserted between the lines for your inquisitive mind, your conscious thoughts, and the power of your subconscious to explore; not the least of which is this: does your subconscious exist independently of your physical self?

"To Sleep, Perchance To Dream"

Next to the most often quoted of all of William Shakespeare's words, "To be or not to be", is "To sleep, perchance to dream", both from Hamlet's famous soliloquy, Act 3 Scene 1.

I am no Shakespearean scholar nor do I  desire to be one but there is something about the above quotation that makes me wonder.  Did old William just touch on the two subject matters that frequently occupied the minds of the people during his time - sleep and death? But is it not also even more remarkably so today? More on this in a bit.

Did you know that people can fast for a week and would be fine afterwards but sleep deprivation even for just 2-3 days is considered torture in international law. Gandhi fasted in at least three separate episodes of his life from 1932 to 1943 and the longest on record was 18 days which showed little or no  ill effects on his physical and mental health. On the other hand,

.."staying awake for 24 hours causes similar cognitive effects as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%, which is higher than the legal limit for driving."        according to the CDC

 

“Sleep deprivation is a high interest loan with steep payments in the form of health consequences.”      -------- Dr. Abhinav Singh, Sleep Physician

The occasional all-nighter to finish a project, a report, or complete doing something on a deadline may have no ill effects if done only once in a while but "borrowing" hours from each daily pattern of sleep could result in chronic sleep deprivation with serious health consequences.

Then there is a world-wide demand for sleep aid and medications for sleep related issues  that in 2025 reached $84 billion and is expected to rise to $163 billion in 2034, barely half a generation from now.

Apparently, advanced mental capacity notwithstanding, only humans suffer from sleep disorder or, is it because of it that makes us vulnerable? Dolphins and whales deal with it by having half their brains go to sleep while the other half is wide awake in alternating fashion while resting. Mammals that they are, the need to breathe air is dealt with through this awesome biological adaptation in a watery environment. I guess whales and dolphins do not suffer from insomnia.

Let's get back to old William S.

There are many interpretations of Hamlet's soliloquy but even today do we not see the message to the ambitious executive, the startup business entrepreneur, or the rich worrying about losing their accumulated wealth?

    

                     "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

                      The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,"..

Or, to the worrier, the heartbroken, or anyone filled with hopelessness in the face of misfortune:

"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.."

 

".. The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep".

Was this grappling with existential questions about life and death? Or, was it contemplating the fear of the unknown after death?  And there too are feelings of despair that some of us may suffer.  But, was it not about sleep too?

If we go by the recommended eight hours of sleep per day, it means spending a third of our lives unaware of what is going on around us. Speaking of being unaware, that is what  general anesthesia does to us during surgery or routine colonoscopy (for those of us of a certain age who have undergone this procedure). But did you know that under anesthesia we do not dream? So, not only are we not aware of what is going on under anesthesia, we do not feel pain, we do not remember anything and we do not dream.  Not only are our reflexes and involuntary movements suppressed while under anesthesia, mechanical ventilation is needed to help us breathe.  The anesthesiologist, whose presence during these procedures is a must, ensures that heart and blood pressure and other vital signs are monitored and that the patient is able to breathe. In other words we are totally in a state of unconsciousness; but are our brains deactivated during all that time? 

But what does that mean?  Is our subconscious also offline?  Is that about as close as we can experience - need we say it - death? To sleep but perchance to not dream! 

But death we need not talk about; instead, let's examine sleep.

 

In normal sleep we dream. However, why are our dreams not quite so normal? I mean our dreams are often weird, silly at times, but dream we do anyhow.

"No one has a single, definitive answer for why humans dream, but neuroscience has moved well beyond guessing. The brain is intensely active during sleep, cycling through stages that each produce different kinds of mental experiences. The leading explanations point to several overlapping functions: consolidating memories, processing emotions, rehearsing threats, and fostering creative thinking. Rather than competing, these theories likely each capture a piece of what dreaming does for us".

So the brain does really want to remain active while much of our physical body is at rest?  But why the silly scenarios, such as, being on a business trip in some unknown city and not able to find your way back to the hotel; or, getting ready for a business presentation and you have no clue about what to present; or, finding yourself with business colleagues ready to board the plane and you are the only one without a boarding pass; or, how about witnessing an airplane crash and when you get to where it fell, you only find a burning chicken, etc. Except for one, those are some of my dreams, long after I've  retired, mind you.

What about nightmares? Is the brain merely trying to scare us?  Or, left alone without our conscious supervision, is the brain just being naughty or capricious while we are sleeping, to get something out of our system and relieve us of daytime stress?

Or, does the brain do it to free us of wild ideas about talking spiders where some have the ability to detect gravity waves, lions and hyenas debating theology, and marauding witches, or conversations between an angel and the devil, etc.  Wait, I wrote those, and if the reader cares(d) to read about them from some of my earlier blogs, you'll know what I mean. So, it's not that. I do hope it's not that.  We'll leave that to the neuroscientists and psychiatrists.

According to one U.N. estimate, 16% of the world's population suffer from insomnia, more among women than men, while those 65 years old or older suffer the least. Shall we guess that women are typically the worrier and those past 65 don't worry too much because they've "been there, done that"?

Granted insomnia is not a permanent malady for most, we are still talking about a billion people having problems with sleep at one time or another; put another way, one in seven people is affected.  No wonder sleeping medications and other sleep aids are a booming business.

Aside from sleep aids and medications, we get a host of advice, "proven" techniques and tricks to getting a good night sleep from friends, from doctors, from  media influencers, etc. 

The reader will get one from me as well. Part of a questionnaire our primary care doctor used to ask me during my annual physical is about how well I sleep at night. I told him what my wife usually says about my sleep pattern - that I fall asleep at the flip of the light switch. At each physical since, he'd remember about it and he kept telling me that it is a blessing to be able to do that. He did ask me once how I do it. I told him that I don't think much about how I do it other than actually using a mental switch the moment I close my eyes.  

Of course, falling asleep at the flip of a switch is an exaggeration but it is pretty close. Then I told him that there  is one interesting question; "What do I do when on rare occasions when sleep eludes me after several minutes when the switch has been flipped and I'm still awake.

I would imagine myself lying along a narrow and gently flowing stream, water slowly cascading over rocks and stones and there's a small fire nearby.  The doctor asked if I'm inside a sleeping bag or on an air mattress. That is never part of the scenery, besides, I've had no experience in real life doing it, not once ever, so the discomfort of the stony ground or wet grass are not in the realm of my imagination. I do imagine  being under a blanket but not worrying about mosquitoes and other night flying insects, snakes slithering by or some nocturnal rodents passing through.  No mosquito nets either. It's the stream, the fire and the blanket that do the trick, a mere stage scene with no basis in reality, yet it works. A variation is sleeping inside a teepee, fire nearby, or on a desert sand or beach under a palm or coconut tree.

But there is the question of falling back to sleep after waking up for one reason or another. A trip (or two) to the bathroom is a common reason - guys of a certain age know what I mean.  Well, I read somewhere a while back, or was it a YouTube presentation, that there is a trick that works all the time when falling back to sleep is an issue.

Here's how it works.

1. Think of a word, with perhaps 4-6 letters.

2. Starting with the first letter, think of as many words as you can that start with that letter, then do the same with the next letter, with the aim of doing all the letters.

Example, you thought of the word - "cover" - starting with 'c', you think of:

cup, cobra, capsule, Cuba, etc., then followed by 'o': ocean, oven, optical, ox, overnight, etc. and on to the remaining letters v, e, r.

The more unrelated the words are to each other, the more effective it is because, we are told, the brain is set up that way during sleep. It goes through all kinds of unrelated scenarios - a disorganized calisthenics of thoughts (my description) - and that's what makes our dreams weird and unreal; a warm up for the brain to take over the landscape of a dreamful sleep.

But it works. You are likely not able to complete the entire exercise before falling back to sleep.  

All that being said, I caution the reader that I am not a sleep psychologist (if there is such a thing as sleep psychology) and I am just relating what I read or saw.  Worth a try though.  It just might surprise you.  

Failing that, get up, get out of the bedroom and read the entire Hamlet soliloquy, and see if it will not put you to sleep. Or, at least you'll see proof of the evolution of language  and why some words succumbed to inevitable extinction. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action.

Well, it's time to say, "Tonight I bid you to sleep, let your brain clean up the clutter and toss them out, and keep only those worth remembering the next morning.

 

Are We Still Talking About Socialism?

Yes, we are still talking about it. Seriously sometimes or perhaps within the bounds of good humor we toss a good dollop of truth in our conversations with snippets of funny stories.

1. Just a month before Nicolas Maduro was given free passage to his current residence in New York, a reporter asked him about the status of the worldwide state of Capitalism.

Maduro responded: "You know, my dear friend and predecessor, Hugo Chavez, told me what he learned from his friend Fidel Castro who learned it from Nikita Khrushchev who in the sixties said that Capitalism was standing on the very precipice of absolute disaster"!

Another reporter then asked about the status of  Socialism in the world.

Maduro responded: "What I learned, as you should know, is that Socialism is always one step ahead of capitalism!"

If that is not the most succinct explanation of the fate of socialism we will be hard pressed to find another one.

2. And, of course, Ronald Reagan had another one of the many stories he had collected on the subject.  Here's another one.

Mikael Gorbachev was told by one of his aides that a woman outside his office refused to leave until she had an audience with the president. "Send her in", Gorbachev said. 

When the woman came in, Gorbachev said, "What's on your mind"?

"Please tell me, who invented communism - a scientist or politician"?

"A politician invented communism", Gorbachev replied.

"Well, that figures, doesn't it"?

"Oh, how so?"

"Well, a scientist would have experimented on mice first."

(I merely embellished stories 1 & 2 that had been around for a while.  I made up story no. 3 below).

3. Through another cosmic oddity, a debate was arranged somewhere. Ayn Rand was picked as the moderator. At one particular moment, already on stage were Fidel Castro, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot waiting in front of their individual lecterns. Then Ronald Reagan appeared from behind the curtain.

Reagan:  I must apologize for being late.  It took me a while to come down the stairway.  I didn't realize how far above I was.

Ayn Rand: Thank you Ronnie, may I call you Ronnie?  Actually where we are right now is about halfway between two places.  These gentlemen had to climb up to get here.  Oh, and don't worry, we have an elevator for you, Ronnie, on the way back up.

Castro: Typical of a capitalist who is used to a life of luxury on the backs of the proletariat. Do you know how rich the capitalists have become building elevators?

Reagan:  Has the debate started already?

Ayn Rand: No, no, not yet.  Although Mr. Castro had already used up his opening remarks.

Mao:  Wait, wait, for a minute.  Let's start this properly. Comrade Stalin, do you care to comment?

Ayn Rand:  Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. Ronnie, who is by himself and there are four of you, will make the first opening remarks.

Reagan: I was expecting my friend Mikhail Gorbachev to come, where is he?

Stalin: I vetoed his presence here.  He was way too soft to be a true communist.

Reagan: Okay.  Josef Stalin. Wow! Imagine if I had to say, "Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili", your real name before you became Stalin.  Mao, we may yet know who actually tailored your own personal Mao jacket. I remember it well when its popularity surged in the late sixties, early seventies. I know the Mao attire started in the forties - mostly from coarse cotton. But by the time of the Cultural Revolution that started in 1966, fashion houses in the west started promoting them.  We knew that coarse cotton was still the go-to material for the common Chinese at that time but yours were from fine silk.  Perhaps after tonight you will tell me who your designer was? Pol Pot,  a name that used to be Saloth Sar, to be honest, why are you here, if not perhaps because of your alliterative name?

Pol Pot: Who are you calling illiterate?

Ayn Rand: Calm down Pol, may I call you Pol. Saloth is hard on my accent. Alliterative simply means that your name  involves a repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of closely connected words, like Big Bang or Criss-Cross, and Saloth Sar falls in that category as well, which has nothing to do with your ability to read or write. Ronnie was not being condescending.

Reagan: My apologies Pol, if you misunderstood. Although I must say that you almost drove all of Cambodia to illiteracy when you pushed every intellectual in your country to hide their literacy by pretending to be illiterate to avoid the ire of the proletariat, as our friend Fidel here alluded to.

Fidel: I need to say something. In Cuba, even today, our resourcefulness and intelligence are responsible for why the Chevrolet Bel Aire still runs on the open road in Cuba while your wasteful people only see them in museums.

Stalin: What is a Chevrolet Bel Air?

Ayn Rand:  It's an American made car way after you were gone, Josef. You are more familiar with the Pobeda model made by the now defunct Russian automaker, the Gorky Automobile Plant that was established in 1932. I used to live in the Soviet Union, as you know, so the Pobeda compared to the Chevrolet Bel Air is like comparing a toaster to a Magic Chef oven.  Anyhow, let's move on, please.  Ronnie?

Reagan: I came prepared because I knew Fidel will bring up the Chevrolet story again. So, for  Joseph Stalin's benefit, here is a photo of a 1954 Bel Air with your favorite color - red.  I do not have a photo of a Magic Chef oven but it does cook like magic compared to a toaster.

Fidel: Like I said, we still have them running in Havana today.

Reagan: Sure, and I must admire the resourcefulness of the people of Cuba.  I am just not a fan of how the government works for them. 

Mao: How should the government work, may I ask?  China today is an economic power and has military power to reckon with and run by the CCP - Chinese Communist Party.

Reagan: But do you know how modern China attained economic power?  By running its economy as a capitalist system and executing the powers of government as a Communist regime.  Fidel, if you must know, the number of Chinese billionaires is second only to those in the USA.  So, I ask you, just ninety miles across the Florida Strait is a country where Cubans live a life a thousand times better than Cubans in Cuba. Don't you want your people to live free and enjoy the blessing of capitalism?  Your neighbors in the Caribbean are enjoying a brisk tourism industry.  Your people could be driving a 21st century vehicle powered by direct fuel injection engines instead of the ones with carburetors as your Chevy Bel Air, that requires to be cleaned every so often. And have you heard of disk brakes and air conditioned cars? Josef, if you must know, cars now have navigation systems that led road maps into mass extinction.

Stalin: How do you air condition cars? And how do they deal with the Russian winter.

Reagan:  Josef, I have so much to show you after this. We'll talk.

Pol Pot: Wait, wait. Indeed, as Reagan asked, why am I here?

Ayn Rand: Pol, I too will show you how Cambodia had progressed since you were gone.  It is now one of the emerging tourist destinations in Asia. I will have you and Fidel talk to tour companies who promise to bring more people to visit your countries. 

Reagan:  Fidel, I will have you know that Cuba will become not just as a tourist destination but a manufacturing hub that will only succeed because of its proximity to the most successful capitalist nation in the world.

Ayn Rand:  You know what, why don't we go to the audio-visual room where we will show, side by side, the difference between how capitalist-run countries stack up against socialist/communist run governments and we'll let the debate continue there. I think it is best to show actual images of people living in capitalist countries and those in communist nations.  By the way, Josef, if you must know, your comrade Nikita Khrushchev was wrong when he predicted during his time:

1. Khrushchev emphasized the superiority of communism over capitalism.

2. He claimed that the inevitable triumph of communism would lead to the downfall of democratic nations.

3. The phrase "we will bury you" was meant to convey confidence in the communist ideology.  He said that at the Communist Party Congress in 1956. Just about that time the Chevy Bel Air produced an optional V-8 engine over what was then an inline six-cylinder engine. I thought I'd mention that. 

I ask you, how many nations today still identify as adhering to the communist ideology?  Think about that as we head to the other room.  Appetizers and drinks will be served and dinner will follow after the debate.

Reagan:  I have more photos to show you and Fidel.  And Fidel, those cruise ships that I hope will soon be docking at your harbors that will bring tourists willing to spend money there, are built by capitalist entrepreneurs that employ thousands upon thousands of people.  The proletariat you refer to are going to be rich proletariats if you allow American and European manufacturers to do business in Cuba. Oh, and do you know that the current American Secretary of State is of Cuban descent?  Let's talk some more, okay?

 

There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere

President Ronald Reagan had to have been the most eternal optimist of all the U.S. Presidents who ever served. If he were just an ordinary person he had to have been a good example of someone who always looked at a half filled glass as half full, as opposed to the other  equally accurate description - that the glass is half empty.  Technically, either description would be accurately correct. The difference is ruled by the rule of perspective.

President Reagan told and re-told this story about the difference between optimism and pessimism. Those around his circle said this was his favorite joke that he often re-told  over and over a few times. 

"The joke concerns twin boys of five or six. Worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities — one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist — their parents took them to a psychiatrist."

The psychiatrist first took the pessimist child to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. Moments later, the psychiatrist checked in on him. Instead of enjoying the toys the little boy burst into tears. Asked why he didn't seem to enjoy playing with the toys he replied “Yes, but if I did I’d only break them.”

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. To dampen the boy's spirits the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. ”What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

The rule of perspective is what gives most situations their definition depending on how one individual looks at it.  However, even in the most dire conditions, the rule of perspective would still have profound influences,  affecting individuals to varying degrees.  Afterall, when things go bad, pessimism does not help, while optimism opens a door through which one may begin to alleviate the ill effects of a bad situation while setting the stage to make things better.

However, that is not to say that pessimism is completely and thoroughly bad because  to be so totally optimistic all the time as to ignore every conceivable possibility that things can go wrong  is also not such a really good thing. From my last musing I did mention about the universal duality as the governing rule that defines purpose.

I wrote too from an earlier topic, ("The Thorny Sides of Impatience", 04/23/2023), that perhaps Col. Custer's total optimism may have caused his and his troop's lives at Little Big Horn on June 26, 1876.  A dose of pessimism, if allowed to prevail, could have delayed Custer's push to the battlefield had he waited for reinforcements that were a mere day away. 

Field Marshal Montgomery ("La Vie En Rose 2", 02/28/2025) was way too optimistic when he pushed so hard to launch Operation Market Garden in Sept. 1944 in an attempt to capture key bridges in the Netherlands as a quick way into German territory.  Instead, it delayed the invasion of Germany when the operation failed at the cost of so many lives of the Allied forces; tragically more so when so many of those were from the 101st Airborne Division that heroically performed so well for the Allied forces in the preceding hours of the Normandy landing three months earlier.

In our personal lives not only is it a good idea to have a healthy mix of optimism and pessimism but that when it comes to relationships between people and particularly between husband and wife, opposing views may help in decision making.  But it must not lead to paralysis. A healthy mix could help when excessive optimism is tempered by a dose of pessimism  to arrive at a balanced decision.

For example, a lofty desire by one partner for a nice luxury vehicle can be prevailed upon when the reality of affordability is brought up by the other. Recognizing  what such an undertaking will do to the family budget may belong in the domain of the pessimist but it is a good balance against the unmetered desires of the insouciant optimist.  Perhaps marriage is not so much about "horse and carriage"' as in an old Frank Sinatra song, but that it is more about polar opposites meeting halfway across the room between the optimist and the pessimist - a prelude to a waltz into a happy solution.

But I say...

When the wind is blowing the optimist decides it is the best time to fly a kite; the pessimist worries about a storm that is certain to follow; the pragmatist is the one to open the windows to let in the breeze of fresh air into the house.

A Quick History of Purpose(s)

Before we get into the business of digging lightly or deeply into the question of whether everything we see and touch around us, or for that matter in the entire universe, has a purpose, I share this funny poster at the auto repair shop I go to for an oil change.  It is funny, of course, because the shop owner's wife who manages the office is the one who put it up there.  

 

Then I found the photo below from somewhere. 

These are sort of the minimalist expressions of "one tool, many purposes", philosophy for fixing as many broken stuff with one tool if possible or with what is available on hand.

On the other hand we may have this almost insane obsession with having "one tool, one purpose" philosophy of specialization taken to extremes.

Guilty as charged. My wife would make fun of me when I prepare and cook two kinds of dishes; then she observes me washing seventeen kitchen utensils and cookware, not including the dishes after we've consumed the meal. Do I need two fillet knives, five paring knives, three different cleavers, a vegetable knife separate from the chef's knife, two cheese knives,  etc.? Some of you looking at the above photo  will ask, "almost insane obsession"? Followed by, "That's unequivocally  nutty", as some of you will add. 

Like I said ..

Whew, now we got that out of the way.  So, does everything have a purpose? Even mosquitoes, viruses, moles, birthmarks and the appendix? And what about cancer cells?  And what's with the humongous seed in an avocado that far outweighs the rest of the fruit?"

The short answer is that everything has a purpose. Actually, when all is said and done, that is the only answer.  Unfortunately, the moment we start the conversation, it will invariably gravitate to the question: "What is the purpose of the existence of the devil, why is there evil in the world?"

Let's pause for a minute. Let's start from the beginning - that is, from the beginning of creation.  Wait, wait, you ask, "Why start from something or somewhere we have no means to travel back to? And why from all the way there?"

Well, we begin there because if we can establish that there was a purpose for   creation  then it follows that everything, from what cosmologists  often describe   as the primordial atom, should have and must have a purpose. 

"Why?" is an entirely different question. Why did the Creator create the universe? That is the one question that is philosophically and theologically difficult to answer, if one is not deeply immersed in theology. It is almost like asking also, "Did the Creator have a choice in creating the universe?"  We will not go there as well.  As Stephen Hawking said, "That would be like trying to read the mind of God".  We too will not venture there.

Biblically we can start with, Genesis chapter one, verse 3 "And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.…

Now, cosmologically, the Big Bang theory says, "that the universe began as an infinitely small, hot, and dense point, which rapidly expanded in an instant.. usually depicted as an intense bright light.

The similarity between the two views is brightly clear with the suddenness of instantaneity as, "Let there be light" and the rapid expansion of everything in 10 to the minus 36 second (10 preceded by 36 zeros), from a single point-source that was infinitely hot and dense that kept on expanding for over 13.7 billion years now and still expanding as we speak.

Genesis 1:3 and the beginning of the universe per the Big Bang Theory are for all intents and purposes similar. There, I managed to sneak in the word "purposes".  So first, Biblically there was darkness and then there was light; from cosmology, there was nothing, then there was something. 

Carefully, we see that the "principle of duality in the universe suggests that opposing forces are interconnected and essential for balance. In cosmology, dualism often refers to the belief in two fundamental concepts that coexist, influencing the structure and behavior of the universe".

Universal Duality also restricts us to view everything around us as either big or small, fast or slow, heavy and light, thin and thick, positive and negative, north and south and on and on.

In the beginning just prior to the creation of atoms, later to combine into molecules, elementary particles started with negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons that made for the creation of atoms, to molecules and later complex compounds that gave us the basic makeup of matter, then on to heavier building blocks.

Lightning is one of nature's most powerful phenomena. Around the world 100 lightning strikes occur every second or 8.6 million strikes each day, as the negatively charged atmosphere and the positively charged ground produces the powerful spark, no different from touching two wires with the two opposing charges. These strikes are responsible for breaking up nitrogen molecules in the air and combining with hydrogen that results in a compound known as NH3. Rain will bring it down to the ground as ammonium hydroxide - ammonia, which is essentially a  natural fertilizer. The ancients believed that the gods used lightning to punish people. As rare an occurrence of lightning killing people or livestock, people still asked why?  Or, to conclude that such was the purpose for lightning.

Metaphorically, a lightning rod is a person or thing that attracts criticism or blame, or politically describing a scapegoat or the focus of public ire. As a result  we forget the real purpose of lightning.

Viruses and bacteria are two of many pathogens known to man.  But they also played a vital role in our development as a successful species. Either they triggered mutations to improve our physiology or that survivors of infection not only passed it on to their progenies and that those who lived on were ably adaptable against infections. Bacteria in our gut are responsible for breaking down nutrients in the food we eat.  Bacteria as in yeast gives rise (literally speaking and pun intended) to better and delicious bread.

Human skin pigments were adaptations based on the intensity of the sun's radiation.  Those located at or near the equator were the sun's intensity was at maximum, skin color became darker to protect the skin.  Humans that migrated northwards into the temperate and colder climate were the sun's intensity was at a minimum in strength and duration, the skin turned paler to absorb the right amount of Vitamin D from the sun's rays.  Adaptation to difference in sun's intensity dictated the difference in skin pigments. The adaptation was precisely controlled so that those located in between the temperate and equatorial zones developed just the right amount of absorption of Vitamin D by having brown skin pigment.  Dark/light duality rules were enforced.

There are countless more examples but suffice it to say that from the beginning of creation, Biblically or cosmologically (as described by science), purposes for and of everything came baked into the entire system.

But what about the existence of the devil?  So it comes down to this, "Did God create the devil?"  I brought up answering this question because I broached the idea about the history of purpose(s) to have started at the beginning of the creation of the universe.  The quick answer is that if we must rely on the belief that God created the universe, then God did create the devil.  For what purpose is the next question.

I am treading on thin ice here because I am neither a theologian or a philosopher. Will pragmatic thinking count?  Let's go back to several paragraphs earlier where, "principle of duality in the universe suggests that opposing forces are interconnected and essential for balance".

Did God have the power to create only good beings? God has already done that; we call them angels. So, here comes what I call the pragmatic approach. God created humans to have free will. The free will to do good or bad is  the purpose for why the devil was created (keeping in mind the universal duality).  It allows us to make a choice.  That would seem to be the practical answer, isn't it?  The freedom to choose is both a gift and a burden. It is presented to us as a choice between which path to take everyday we are on the road that we call life. Simply put, our life's journey will always take us to countless series of crossroads. It is the proverbial fork on the road where the choices we make are what will determine our fate. The devil's purpose is to entice or lead us to choices that are contrary to what God would want us to  make.  God gave us the power of free will, but  it  comes with a cost or reward.   

It is not a theological answer but the purpose of this musing is not to make it one. All that is perhaps worth remembering is that  we are endowed with the power to choose. And a responsibility to do what our conscience has equipped us to do.  Conscience is what influences behavior based on a lot of things, for example, our upbringing, our education, our environment and most of all, the path we preferred or the direction we choose, every time we are called upon to exercise our free will. 

P.S.

In prehistoric times the ancestors of avocados were dined on by large plant eaters that merely swallowed the fruit whole without biting into the seed which was bitter anyway (like most seeds). The avocado seed was dispersed that way through the animal's poop.  The seed is large and packed with nutrients that gave it a huge advantage in development as a well endowed seedling. The plant eaters that dined on it became extinct so why did the avocado not evolve with smaller seeds to adapt to  smaller foragers?  Perhaps it was then when human agriculture developed. Ancient farmers merely replanted avocado seeds thus ensuring the survival of the fruit to this day.  

Orchids are another example of extraordinary adaptation.  In the wild, they produce blooms to attract insects to pollinate the flowers.  Today, they are well adapted in people's homes and nurseries - one of the most extraordinary adaptations using the smartest creatures (us) to propagate and even develop new strains of beautiful flowers.  In 2026, people around the world will spend an estimated $2.3 billion on orchids and estimates of $4.5 billion in 2035.  And orchids, as a hobby by humans, live in comfort and care in people's homes.  

But we've become smarter too. Orchids kept indoors do not have insects to pollinate their flowers.  However, that is precisely why their blooms last a lot longer, waiting for the insect pollinator that will not show up, because as soon as the blooms are pollinated they will wilt to turn into seeds. So, in a way, by keeping them in the comfort of our homes we get to enjoy their blooms longer.

 

I spent a good amount of my woodworking hobby building an orchid tree at one of the coziest corners of our home. And these plants don't even bloom year round. I spend a good amount of late spring to late fall tending to them until they start blooming in late winter. These plants adapted themselves into a pampered life.  What is their purpose? You know the answer.