Since I am just about as atheist an evolutionary biologist as they come, I'm trying to figure out why my favorite song in the whole world right now is The Rising, Bruce Springsteen's description of human brotherhood in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Overtly christian, it's just not the message I profess to be into (profess, of course, in the sense of a declaration of my position, not a confession of an article of faith (smile))  Oh I get a choked up every time, (even if the cd player is set on my OCD-lifer favorite setting, "repeat 1".)¹ I can do this all day.  I have.

My in-my-opinion-not-in-conflict-with-anything-post-Enlightenment view of humanity I often describe thus: The human occupied environment is a big pan with one of those sheet metal electric vibrating football games I had as a kid in the 70's sitting in it.   We humans are the little plastic football players (team concept not important here) that sort of randomly, excruciating slowly, mostly futilely, skate about when the power is put to us.  Modifications to the fondly remembered mechanical game for this essay's purpose:  1.) the football players are sentient and can record their history in the form of monuments set on the field, and 2.) the whole rig is buried in petroleum jelly (thus the pan) that slows everybody down and makes it so you can't see anybody or anything you are not in contact with.  This is not as sad as it sounds.  Most of the Vaseline is the real unknown, so a noble adversary.  But yes, of course, the remainder is self-imposed, as if the tiny pugilists were excreting a fill at their own heels. And even that is not on purpose, with the possible exception of the ones playing for Fox News. 

Let's turn the power on and see (remember, actually) what happens:  You will recall that some of the players lock arms and dance in a circle, forever.²  Most though sort of brush by each other, contacting only inconsequentially.  And a few have collisions that alter their path.  Now you can move the ball this way, especially if you add my previously mentioned handy dandy monuments feature, which could be used to avoid lost yardage (at least the self-inflicted kind) and running out of bounds, on advice of signs left by fellow travelers, to some degree.  So if I remain faithful to my own construct, and I do profess any faith, it is my belief in progress, in moving the ball, in adding to a base of knowledge, at the speed of blood drying, but ultimately forward.

Back to the song:  "Can't see nothin' in front of me, can't see nothin' coming up behind, I make my way through this darkness...

¹ I have driven from West Virginia to NYC (seven hours) with the radio set on scan, so repetitive interruption apparently compels me also, but this is not helping my argument here.

² You see a lot of this in Boulder.  But these are the skinniest, healthiest people in the United States, and I came here in the hope that a little would rub off, so I'm not criticizing.  Not getting me to stop my annual flu vaccination though.³

³ Boulder is, according to the CDC, one of only two statistically significant vaccination-deficiency bubbles (all available types) in the US.  Hippies.