 I turn 54 today and the Universe is trying to kill me. Let me explain.
As I celebrate another trip around the sun, the sun commemorated the occasion by unleashing a major solar storm aimed directly at our planet. While I’ll try not to take this personally, it does get me thinking. The solar flare carries the energy of billions of nuclear bombs. We might have some internet and GPS interruptions, but Earth will shrug it off. Life will go on. You see, our little planet has an a magnetic field that punches way above its weight class. The sun’s highly charged onslaught will go right around our planet. That incredible magnetic field will even protect the astronauts on the International Space Station. If our planet orbited just a little closer to the sun, we’d be fried. If we didn’t have such an exceedingly powerful (and unusual) magnetic field, we’d be fried. If we orbited only a little farther away, we’d be frozen. Scientist call this place Earth occupies “The Goldilocks Zone” because its not too hot and not too cold. In fact, it’s just right. It’s impossibly right. Our planet dances on the edge of impossibility. Go up about fifty miles and the atmosphere is too thin to support life. Beyond that, there is nothing but emptiness. Dig down about 18 miles and you enter a searing hot ocean of molten rock. To put it in perspective, our solar system is approximately 93 billion miles in diameter. Of that, a band less than 70 miles supports life. 70 miles out of 93 billion miles! Oh, it gets better. If our planet didn’t have a molten iron core, we wouldn’t be here. If our planet wasn’t blessed with an unusual amount of water, we wouldn’t be here. If an astroid hadn’t knocked off all those pesky dinosaurs, we wouldn’t be here. Our telescopes have discovered worlds circling other stars as far away as 13,000 light years. In all that searching they’ve discovered no signs of life, intelligent or otherwise. It doesn’t mean there isn’t life, its just that we haven’t found it. The Universe is about 98 billion light years across and overwhelmingly inhospitable, (mostly due its nature of being a bunch of nothing). Life needs stuff to survive. In the places where the Universe actually has stuff, that stuff hates life. A sliver of biosphere 70 miles thick supports the only life for at least 13,000 light years. Despite overwhelming odds, Earth teems with life, (some of it might even be intelligent.) This planet is about 4 billion years old, and, amazingly enough, has hosted life for most of that time. The Universe has tried to knock us off again and again. Yet, here we are. This brings me to today. I turned 54 today. Mathematically, I shouldn’t be here and neither should you. In the known universe, there isn’t anything like us, and like Earth. We are living, breathing miracles, little slivers of self-aware time-space. Our little planet dances on the edge of impossibility, therefore so do we. Statistically, we punch way above our weight. That thought fills me with gratitude and awe. I’m thankful God permitted me a brief time here to witness and participate in Creation. I hope to participate some more before the Universe finally knocks me off. I guess it’s time for a glass of wine, and prepare for another lap around the sun. *** If you enjoyed this blog, please like the post and leave a comment or if you're feeling brave, share it on social media. This platform is my entire advertising budget and is how I share the word on my books. Also visit my Facebook, my author page and check out my photography book from America Through Time, "Abandoned Wiregrass: The Deepest South's Lost and Forgotten Places." #birthday #joy #faith #hope #god #gettingold  "Wiregrass Rush Hour." 2020 Brian Braden Photography I was going to write a blog this morning either about the function of faith in civilization or how left-lane drivers really irritate me. Guess which topic won?
(Sung to the tune of “Life in the Fast Lane” by the Eagles) He was a slow-driving man He was brutally oblivious, and she was terminally texting, She held them up, and he braked for no reason In the heart of the slow, slow traffic. They had one thing in common. They didn’t know how to use a turn signal "Slower, Slower the lights are turnin' red!” Life in the left lane, surely make you lose your mind. Bad lyrics and kidding aside, left-lane drivers drive me nuts. I suspect I’m not alone . There are many more eloquent than I who have commented on those who park in the left lane and don’t move over. I try not to let them annoy me anymore, because nothing is going to change the fact they will always be with us. You see, left-lane driving is proof of the existence of original sin. (stay with me here) When Jesus said “The poor will always be with you” I think he also meant a lot of things people do will always be with us. You see, in most cases we humans are taught what’s right. Logically, we know what is good and bad. Wash your hands before you eat. Don’t mix beer and wine. Watch what you eat. Murder is bad. Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Don’t hang out in the left lane. Yet, we do it all anyway. When one hangs out in the left lane, and people start resorting to passing on the right it’s a clue you’re doing something wrong. But I'm not not really just talking about left-lane driving, its about following rules. When I say "follow rules", I’m not referring to high-minded concepts like civil disobedience and rebelling against tyranny. I’m talking about following speed limits, not littering, flushing the toilet and putting the twisty tie back on the bread bag. I'm referring to responsible civic-mindedness. The simple stuff and the blatantly obvious. Most people see the wisdom in following traffic rules, or most civic rules. However, some people think rules are for other people. This attitude is neither malicious nor uncommon. It’s just being human. What isn’t discussed much about this phenomenon is that people who think this way often think consequences are for other people, too. This is at the heart of what I’m trying to get across. A few years back I took my three young children to the park. A ring of signs clearly stated pets were not allowed in the playground areas, and 99% of the greater park was open to pets including two dedicated dog parks. While my children played, a woman strolled right into the playground area with a Great Dane on a leash, sat on a bench, and stuck her face in her phone. The horse-dog then proceeded to urinate and defecate where the children played. She thought the rules didn’t apply to her, nor did the consequences. The kids stepping the animal waste paid the price, not her. I’m not judging her, because I’ve been her before in regards to other infractions. I think we all have, to some degree or another. We’ve all bent, ignored, or consciously blown-off common sense rules put in place to protect others and ourselves. Sometimes the consequences may be something smelly and squishy between our toes, and sometimes it’s far worse. A few weeks ago I witnessed an accident where a young woman decided to pass on a two-lane blacktop in a no-passing zone. She was approaching a limited-sight hilltop at full highway speeds and decided to pass a the vehicle in front of her. And pass she did, and immediately collided head-on with an automobile pulling out onto the highway. The no passing zone was clearly marked. Common sense says passing when approaching a hilltop is a bad idea. Yet, she did it anyway, and horror resulted. Why do we do it? We want rules. We elect politicians to make laws. We hire bureaucrats to regulate us. We want our police to enforce them. Yet, as individuals we often brush rules aside, sometimes cavalierly, like it’s cool. When we step in dog crap in the playground, or get stuck behind the guy driving five miles an hour under the speed limit in the left lane, we shake our fists and wonder why people can’t follow the rules. Then there are those times when tragedy strikes because someone decided the rules didn’t apply to them. All of us take a bite of Eve’s apple from time to time and end up hanging out in the left lane. It’s in our DNA. It’s a flaw in our programming at the deepest level. This inherent flaw, dare I say sin, of willful disobedience is fundamental human nature. No number of laws, rules or regulations or screaming at the car in front of you will change it. So stop screaming at the guy in the left lane, or you’ll surely end up losing your mind. You're not going to change him. Maybe we need to work harder on changing our own behavior. In life, the only driver you can control is yourself. #traffic #essay #orginalsin #sin #culture #society #issue #faith #religion *** If you enjoyed this blog, please like the post and leave a comment or if you're feeling brave, share it on social media. This platform is my entire advertising budget and is how I share the word on my books. Also visit my Facebook, my author page and check out my photography book from America Through Time, "Abandoned Wiregrass: The Deepest South's Lost and Forgotten Places." " [T]his is biased since I'm a vociferous Atheist...If it had been properly ADVERTISED as a religious book, I would have avoided it at all costs." - 3/5 stars When I wrote Black Sea Gods, I thought my biggest detractors would be people of faith. I took clear artistic license with elements from the Bible. Though I tried to do so respectfully, it could be argued my novel has heretical elements. I was prepared for the backlash, but it never materialized. I haven't heard a peep out of Christians, Muslims or Jews about my novel’s subject matter. Most "voracious" critics seem to be young, self-avowed atheists. I just received yet another review where someone comes to the “big reveal" and gets downright angry. One minute their digging the book, they next they recoil like they’ve been shocked by a cattle prod. In several cases, these readers made it known or inferred they were atheist. I assumed atheists would be the last people in the world upset by the big plot twist in Black Sea Gods. Logic dictates they would view the novel as a unique take on blended mythology and, perhaps history. I mean, if its myth, why get so angry? Why would an atheist view it any differently that an ancient Greek worshipping Zeus? Some call my novel "religious." It has a well-known religious character, one who holds deep faith. All the other characters, the main characters, are pagan. But that doesn’t make it a religious book in any way. If a reporter interviews a religious leader, does that make the broadcast a sermon? Can faith and religion be an element in fiction without the novel being religious? I thought it could. A religious book seeks to covert, or evangelize. It may also aim to bring about some moral outcome or spiritual revelation to the reader. My novel doesn't do that. It simple seeks to tell a story in a setting where characters have religious beliefs that are natural and appropriate to their period in history. If I wanted to write a religious novel, I would have followed the template of Tolkien or Lewis. Both authors openly admitted their novels were thin veneers for their deeply held religious beliefs. As for Narnia, the veneer isn’t just thin, its nonexistent. Even Harry Potter has deep Christian themes running through it. I think my real sin was that I make these kind of readers uncomfortable. I take them places they aren’t ready to go by invading their intellectual safe space. Maybe I should just write something safe, non-offensive, and accepted by mainstream society...like hardcore erotica. Find out what all the controversy is about. Buy your copy of BLACK SEA GODS on Amazon.
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