Minds and imaginations

Being the highest predator on the list is not the blessing it may appear to be. Our physical attributes and imagination allow us to do things many other creatures cannot.

That should be a blessing, but I think it is a mixed one.

The same minds and imaginations that dream up cures for diseases, machines that work for us, and art to inspire us, also conjure up other less savory things.

We are not content to be warm, fed, safe, and productive. We covet being the "best," the "biggest," "richest," "most powerful" and we come up with ways to make that happen. 

But the worst part of being human is our fear.  These minds that imagine so many good things also dream up tales of terror about things we know little or nothing about. We fear people and ideas that are new, or different. We are terrified to take the time to learn about them for fear that they will get us first. And so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

We fear those whose skin is different, whose religions are different, whose dress is different.  We fear those who speak another language, or whose habits don't match our own. Our fears create an aura of being "not the same" when our similarities outnumber our differences 100:1.

Fear is at the root of almost all evil. People fear the police and police fear the people. The rich fear the poor and the poor fear the rich.  Diversity becomes a curse instead of an opportunity and we walk around with what appear to be chips on our shoulders when it is the uncertainty inside us that keeps us off balance.

Here we are in Eden struggling to get out.