The miracle of our simultaneous existence
The closing passage of Barbara Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Streets: The History of Collective Joy, is one of my favourite quotes...
the samba school turned into a crowd and the crowd turned into a momentary festival. There was no "point" to it - no religious overtones, ideological message, or money to be made - just the chance, which we need much more of on this crowded planet, to acknowledge the miracle of our simultaneous existence with some sort of celebration.
The sheer unlikelihood of our own existence, of anyone’s existence, of the planet’s existence - and we are here, now, together in this fraction of a moment in the history of the universe. It’s amazing and I want to appreciate that more.
This attitude works on people I don't like also. I can appreciate the infinitesimal chance we are in this moment together. And for people I don't know. We are here together. We have an obligation to one another. To look after each other.
It's possible we are extremely early humans in the history of humans. It's possible we are almost the end of humanity, that we are about to obliterate ourselves. It doesn't really matter because we don't know. We won't ever know. We only have now. We only have each other.