I heard somewhere that the galaxy takes about 20 million years to make one rotation. I wonder how many rotations it has already made. And I wonder how many more it will make?

I have a lot of Angst about the world we live in. I am always troubled by the way things are. I always have this nagging feeling that we are on the wrong path. Life wasn't meant to be about cubicles, quarterly reports, 401ks, quick vacations to Aruba and finding a good auto mechanic.

This morning I sat down at my desk and spent some time paying my bills then I went for a walk to the mailbox.

I have to admit that even though I border on being a Luddite I do love the mailbox. We have to give credit to Benjamin Franklin for this among other things. The mail system is a remarkable machine that allowed us to communicate across time and place. I don't think this is true any longer the days of people actually putting together long letters of thoughts and ideas is long gone. We live in a world of immediate gratification, sound bytes and blurbs.

Back to my story

I took my bills in hand and went for a walk to the mailbox. Along the way I spotted this candy bar being systematically disected by Ants. My mind quickly traced through a familiar path.

The first Thought Stop was this: "Look, another example of the rampant consumerism and manufacturing industry polluting the world. The little things add up. Why don't people care enough to at least throw the trash out in a way that it will be handled correctly? Are we lost because we don't care about the world anymore?"..

From here I looked closer and I moved on to the second Thought Stop.

There were ants all over this thing. They were joyfully feasting on the sugar and the chocolate. There were hundreds of them and they were doing what they were meant to do -clean up the world.

Thought Stop 3: It's a shame, I thought to myself , that there wasn't a type of Ant that could seal up the ozone hole, or a type of Ant that could reduce Global Warming, Or even a type of Ant that feasted on Automobile emissions.

Thought Stop 4: We are doomed. This is going to all come crashing down. We will pollute the Earth, use up the oil, drop nuclear bombs or whatever. But eventually it will all come crashing down.

Out of this pessimism a new thought stop wiggled its way into my mind.

Thought Stop 5: Won't Mother Nature take care of all of this? Just like she always has. Won't there always be Ants and the such to clean up the mess?

Let's spend a little more time on this Stop.

First of all let's ask the question "What is Mother Nature?"

Is she in the woods? In the Rain Forest? In the trees? In the Earth? In the Solar system? or even the galaxy? Yes she is in all of these things -and more. She is in everything and part of everything.

Just the smallest part of her takes 20 million years to revolve once; Has done it many times and will do it many more.

Maybe it is silly of us to try to change things. Or even to get Angst over it.