About Carbon

About carbon:

and most important is carbon, at least in our present life form, our basic structure, and with 12 percent of our bodies atoms being from this element. We are considered carbon-based life form, and from plants to every animal we are surrounded by its presence. It's amazing that this life giving element is formed deep within a star, a Big Bang effect that continues to be expressed through this day. Yes, we are literary  made from the stuff of stars. But really, this isn't about carbon. 

nor elements at all.

this is about awareness, our sense of presence, and that somehow an arrangement of elements gains us a conscious expression lasting for a lifetime. I'm not talking about our thoughts here, nor even our sense of being an individual self - of this it could all be an illusion, perhaps a chemical reaction within the brain itself, honestly we mostly have no idea of how a thought, and the following sense of self appear. On this I won't speculate further. I'm not really interested on the hard problem of conscious and I'm definitely not qualified to provide an argument one way or the other. 

my only qualification is that I'm aware.

and aware that I am.

yet how is it that I'm composed of elements, atoms, particles swirling through a vast emptiness, and that somehow this all arises as an awareness of this very moment of existence? What is it about carbon that causes plants to reach towards light? Or a diamond to form? It's so easy for my mind to wander, speculating on how this all came to be exactly so, and that there is a certain means and purpose to it all. My preference though is mystery. I accept the answers given by science, fascinated by the story of how life came to be from origins of the Big Bang all the way through evolution and the present moment. I listen to philosophers, religious thinkers, mystics and the stories that they offer. I'm interested in it all, everything, giving it attention even without believing that it's so. 

but right now I'm thinking about carbon.

that of all the elements it has a prominence of aware nature, plants and animals, people - I'm not assigning magic here, although I find it all magical in a very real alchemical sense, that the basics of life are arranged in a certain way for awareness to be formed. I'm just curious, allowing my mind to wander without conclusion, or drawing purpose to it all. I'm okay without knowing how consciousness came to be, and again will leave it simply as a mystery. There doesn't need to be a reason for any of this.  But I'm endlessly grateful that everything is arranged just so, perfectly aligned for me to sit here this early morning, listening to birds sing to me the arrival of dawn, watching steam rising from my cup of coffee, writing about carbon. 

~

Peace, Eric