…we (human beings) are the product of an evolutionary process, one that, on what we here call planet Earth, has been a rather wondrous, horrifying, amazing, and brutal occurrence!  Yet, we are here, or…here we are.

Homo sapiens (i.e., human beings) may just be one of evolution’s most elegant and grotesque creations – a species of life capable of the most noble and most atrocious behaviors imaginable.  [Just e.g., do we know of any other species that kills, tortures, or inflicts such distress on its own?]

Yet, here in addressing “the reality” it is salient to note that whatever happens and becomes of us [as a species] is of little consequence to the Universe (i.e., that mostly unknown world beyond our planet) nor even to “this home” we call Earth; neither really “care” what becomes of us.

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The reality is also that we are the product of other evolutionary processes as well.  One is within our species itself (i.e., what we call our culture, our society, our “global village”), the other within each individual presentation of that species – i.e., you!

One way to see such evolution in our species is through what we call “the technology;” e.g., consider how we communicate and how it has changed over just the past few centuries. And within the self, look at your own life, at who you were, say, as a child, and then an adolescent, and who you are now.  Your intrapersonal evolution has been that process of growing up, maturing, learning, achieving, moving forward…ultimately aging.

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So, the reality is we are now living in a time and in a world [i.e., in that “bubble” we call “Earth”] that is changing existentially for the personal, individual, human experience at a rate that both challenges our capacity to adapt and threatens our very survival; e.g., the potentially decimating consequence of “self-inflicted” climate change, or a more abrupt conclusion at the hands of nuclear annihilation. Note that our colonial ancestors’ reality did not have such “existential” concerns…

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While we know the dinosaurs became extinct not because of their own doing but because of external (to their species) forces and circumstance, we of the homo sapiens experience have the capability to become extinct due to our own…intelligence.  (E.g., nuclear annihilation, or , AI our demise…?)

So, what do we do with our lives now – given the technology, the knowledge we have (first individually but then also in the collective aggregate of humankind), and finally in the state of our social (including political) constructs?  Let’s look – with the reality in mind – at what we can do…to live our lives meaningfully, purposefully, pleasurably…

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First…take the red pill. (The red pill and blue pill are metaphorical terms representing a choice between learning an unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill or remaining in the unquestioned experience of an illusion appearing as ordinary reality with the blue pill.)

Second, you are (and note, we all are) the product of your respective childhood conditioning – you had no choice in where you were born, in whose care you were raised, nor in the social circumstances of those who provided such care-giving.

Third, evolution – and particularly that of the intrapersonal – has given you the capability to make a difference…in how you live your life.  Yes, you are the product, arguably the victim, of your genes and upbringing and all that conditioning you’ve been subjected to – it is (and is in) your Elephant. But you also are the Rider, and the Rider can be…proactive.

That…is the reality…