If the human race were to end tomorrow, what would its epitaph be? Would it say on some celestial grave-
"They were a noble species. They lived life well. They served and gave. They worked at what they loved and they loved with all of their hearts."
No. No one would dare say those words, for they would be lying through their teeth.
Would it say, "They were a great race. They rose to the heights. They ventured and explored. They studied and mastered. Inspired by awe and wonder, they searched both within and without to reveal the mysteries of creation. Let it be known that before the end without a doubt they all lived in a state of rapture."
No. No one could dream of describing the human race in that way. Half way through such an epitaph everyone would know those words were fake.
What would you say if you had to summarize in a concise way the 200,000 or so years of Homo sapiens existence on earth? How do you put into words the truth?
"They were a mixture of good and evil, light and dark; dark at its worst perhaps because too much light did blind their sight. They reached for the heights and also cast their nets into the depths. "Sometimes angelic in inspiration and much too often demonic in action. Behold their creations-seven wonders of an ancient world highlighted in the modern era by Auschwitz and Dachau. "Small pox, a plague upon the human race for tens of thousands of years, they eliminated the last case in 1977. After two world wars, they made a kind of peace with each other by declaring a moratorium on war through the strategy of mutually assured destruction. "For a brief time, they seemed to find themselves as they gave everything they had in mastering technology, industry, and innovation. Though they won the cosmic lottery in attaining interplanetary travel, unfortunately, they never colonized another planet. It never occurred to them that survival was essential."
What shall we say? They took into his hands the powers of creation? They saw infinity? They reached out and touched the face of God? But what their eyes saw their hearts were unable to embrace. They were unable to hold light, love, and wisdom within their souls. Now that they are gone, the physical world empty of their rage and their grace, may they finally find what has always eluded them in every way-inner peace.
Or perhaps another would say; What is man? Behold! He plows the seas with his ships and with his planes he sails higher into the sky than the clouds. He spies into nature's mysteries. He reassembles DNA. He sends probes into intergalactic space. He leaves tracks in the dirt on other planets with his roving machines. He splits the atom, makes diamonds from coal, and tracks the boson particle. He issues weather reports on earth like planets revolving around distant stars. He simulates with silicon chips micro moments of the first second the universe began and how stars and galaxies formed thereafter. Yet these things he has not learn to do-to do justice, to speak the truth, and to understand other's hearts. This is what was missing-a direct heart to heart and soul to soul connection with anyone else on earth in any moment. For if they had they been able to do this they would have known how to dissolve malice with ease and overcome those who abuse power simply by concentrating on an individual, freeing him of his false attachment, and restoring him to his best path in life. They were granted a time and a season. They were surrounded by infinite possibilities. All they ever needed to do in order to survive was to make an effort to seize one or two of those wonders of creation that appeared before them. But in this endeavor they failed. They did not come through.
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so.
--William Shakespeare, from Hamlet