Saturday, March 24, 2012


THE THIRD BRANCH


When the early monkeys came to that specific evolutionary fork in the big old tree of life and looked forward along the left branch, they saw strange things up ahead, like more intelligence, protoconscience, moralities all vague and misty, and said
Whoa, let's not go that way - they had their reasons - so they chose the other branch, took the path more traveled and got to the upper canopy where they are now, which isn't bad, actually-- mostly the tropics.

Then when our own foresimians came to the same fork they looked to the right branch and saw all those monkeys jammed up ahead, said Damn, that is way too crowded, give me some space, so they headed left into all that shifting civiloplasm where they had some room to think and did, and here we all are with a long list of haftashouldy stuff eats up our time.

So it happens that now and then, when I pause in my work at tilling and planting to grow some of my own food on my mortgaged soil, or at patching up my weathering residence, I watch the monkeys ambling houseless past my garden into the food-laden forest or sitting up in the arms of a tree comfy-munching on a natural snack that many humans say God has provided, and I think about the monkeys’ choice way back then, since now they can go anywhere, anytime, no 9 to 5, no visas, mortgages, suits, appliances or infidels... If I was back at that evofork right now on behalf of all humanity up ahead somewhere on the timepike, I think I’d check to see whether maybe there was a third branch we might have overlooked; you never know...

May as well think about it, since we wound up being able to.

2 comments:

Tabor said...

Maybe even more than a third...a fourth...a fifth? Oh well, it is what it is and it is always greener when looking up at the underside of tree leaves.

Deb said...

Can we have a do-over? Actually that may be coming and it won't be as pleasant as advertised (which by all accounts is not at all pleasant to begin with so might be truly horrific).

20,000 years pass...

Pass a tender leaf Bobbo, or one of those wild onions... I said SHARE the onions you %$&(* (monkey fight ensues).

And then it says to prove I'm not a robot. Says nothing about proving I'm not a monkey.