Source of all life

I was sitting here working away on my PC and a couple of those tiny flies kept hovering around me … you know the kind. So small that you can barely see them, but every now and then they fly up your nose and your whole world grinds to a halt as you go into spasms trying to get them out.

Well, it wasn’t my nose that needed protection but my cup of coffee was precariously open to any kamikaze intentions that they might have, so I looked around for something that might protect this oh-so-precious liquid. It was early morning and the last thing I needed was to lose my first cup of caffeine.

There was an old CD resting near my keyboard and being the lazy ass that I am at that time of the morning, I figured that might do the job nicely. Funny thing is I never even checked what was on the disc or how important it might be … the threat of losing my black coffee at that time of the morning took absolute precedence.

Here’s hoping I didn’t end up losing the missile launch codes because of that decision!

But happy that I had protected my source of sustenance from these intruders, I went back to work on some image editing that I needed to do. The thing about image editing is that you can lose yourself in it. You lock your stare into the screen as you remove imperfections and make some minor adjustments.

So it could have been ten minutes before I remembered the coffee and went to take a drink. That’s when I noticed the condensation that had gathered on the underside of the CD.

I left the image on screen and stared endlessly into the tiny beads of water that had formed. I watched how they changed in hue as I tilted them against the backdrop of the light beaming in through my open office door.

Being the distracted kitten that I am, I grabbed my camera and the CD and brought it outside and began to shoot the condensation against the natural light and I have attached a few images for today’s viewing. Hope you enjoy!

The story would have a wonderful end if I when I got back in from my distraction there was a fly floating in my coffee, but in truth there wasn’t.

The appearance of water on the CD and how it is ultimately the source of all life began to play around in my head, though. And that is the real story behind today’s thought.

With this hurricane barreling down on Florida these past few days, I have watched with dismay at the amount of panic and greed that has been playing out, as some have decided to hoard as much of this commodity as possible (not to mention gas, and canned food).

There are those who have hoarded so much that they couldn’t possibly consume it but their wallets allowed them to do so. Then there are others who live paycheck to paycheck who just don’t have the resources to hoard in such a manner.

Explorations in space are very much about finding planets with the presence of water. Universally, we all agree that this is the general source of all life. Yet there are some who believe water is something that should not be readily available to all. They fill their garages with so much that their fellow human beings of less privilege are left to deal with empty shelves.

A sixty-something woman, physically pushed me out of the way this morning at Walmart. I was looking for a 9V battery for a camera accessory and she shoveled the last six or seven packs of C batteries into her shopping cart. I could have said something suggestive about what she might need the batteries for, but the polite person in me just stayed quiet.

There isn’t a can of pasta, bottle of water, or gallon of gas, to be had anywhere near me. Could this level of greed be any more absurd?

So much for home of the brave … mention the word hurricane here and watch peoples’ true nature come to the fore. And speaking of “fore” … our forefathers, the people that established this land of the free, would be so ashamed of how “me-and-mine” focused, its citizens have become.

I shake my head.

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