Eudaimonia Journal

Lounging in my not quite so Epicurean garden I am watching the bees perform their appointed tasks for Queen and hive. I marvel at their work ethic and attention to detail. They are still toiling away four hours after I called it quits at work. People are lazy in comparison to the honey bees. For all of their labor for a single summer produces one tea spoon of finished honey each.

Unlike our fellow humans they work for the wellbeing of the entire hive. Each member has its roll and performs according to its best ability. Unfortunately for the males they are kicked out after autumn arives to save the resources for the breeding and producing females.

Contrary to western human society the greatest offense that the drone bees can commit is out living their usefulness.

Nature demonstrates that it is both unfathomable cruel and simultaneously wondrous.  As products of nature ourselves, time is relentless in its efficiency and design. What befalls nature also befalls humanity as a whole. Some of us are more fortunate than others to have the resources to prolong the inevitable but nature always prevails.

Insight softens the sting of mortality and impermanace. As a comedian once noted that “no one gets off this rock alive.” I still find it curious that many people fail to accept that on a universal scale is minute compared to the Earth and universe. Having once nearly died and having been resuscitated; I have firm understanding of the frailty of the human condition. I don’t know if I have 20 seconds or 20 years on this planet but I fully intend to remain useful and grateful for whatever time I have left in this world.

I can not help but wonder how many people actually engage in pondering our place within the grand scheme of events and whether our our collective or individual contributions tip the scale one way or another but we endeavor onward till we are silenced forever.