This Terribly Beautiful World

I’ve been watching Origins, on NatGeo. If you get the chance, watch it. Fascinating. It does an amazing job of showing both the beauty and horror of humankind. We are amazingly beautiful creatures, innovative, brilliant, kind, determined, courageous, selfless. We are also every opposite.

It has made me wonder how there can be so much beauty existing alongside equal parts horror. Some children are happy, healthy, thriving, while others are abused, hungry, angry or already defeated. There are police officers who put themselves in harm’s way to save a stranger, or a kitten. There are police officers who strangle-hold an unruly child, because the law is on their side. There are soldiers who go into battle to keep the homeland safe, and others who shoot at strays, just to while away some down time. There are politicians who truly want to serve the people, and those who only want to serve themselves. (Though I fear the ratio on this last one is kinda skewed.)

Narrow it down and narrow it down, and we all have the same horror/beauty in our personal lives. I wonder how I can be so happy, thriving professionally and personally, when I never get through a day without seeing what I saw, living what I lived. Looking at the big picture, knowing this is simply the way of things, actually helps. Some people’s personal horror is small, and others, big. It doesn’t matter. Our horrors are our own, and real, and painful.

It’s all a cosmic balancing act, really. Origins has helped me truly see that the horrors of war and pollution and corruption have actually BETTERED humanity as a whole, even if it was terrible for the individuals involved. It’s not pretty, but it’s reality.

Life is beautiful, and brutal. Accepting it goes a long way in being able to process it all rationally, if not emotionally.