Einstein Says...

Far be it from me to argue with a genius, particularly when his signature equation, E=MC2 doesn't raise a hair on my woolly head as it whizzes way above my 5'8" body.

I googled what the equation means (e = a unit of energy, m = units of mass and c2 is the speed of light squared) to save some readers from having to do the same and hopefully I'm not alone in being none the wiser - physics, numbers, equations, formulas fuzzle my head and make my eyes spin.

However, I can totally relate to this Einstein quote, difficult as it is for a Cancerian, genetically engineered by the planets at birth, to leave the cosy rut she wraps snugly around her like a cuddly duvet.

What is life but a road trip with one single, absolute and common destination for everyone, magnificently captured in the infamous Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch?  "E's passed on!  This parrot is no more!  He has ceased to be! ....'is metabolic processes are now 'istory!...This is an ex-parrot!!"

We have to keep moving.  Evolution is simply changing and adapting to an environment in a constant state of flux.  It's not only our surroundings that change; we, as people change.  Parents continually remark how their offspring resemble one side of the family or other, how Johnny inherited dad's rugby skills and Jane has her granny's love of music, Thembi has her father's eyes while Sbu, sadly, is as short as his mother.  We seem to stop the comparisions as they grow to teenagehood, but a penetrating look in a mirror will show you that in middle age you appear to look more like one parent than you ever did before. It's not only wrinkles and skin folds that emerge, our appearance is changing with the years as well.

Likewise our interests progress and develop in different directions with time. Our world contracts and expands according to our interaction with it and I, for one, love the easy accessibility of technology and Google. Reading a book or watching a movie with my phone in one hand, ready to check a fact or new word.  This usually leads to some interesting new nugget of knowledge and no one could fault that.

We grow as we stretch our boundaries, both physical and mental.  In the rapidly narrowing gap between where I am now and my final destination lie new experiences and adventures.  The choice to pick them and leave behind the familiar and comfortable is mine. We can fear falls and dead ends, but simply sitting in one spot marking time is not enough.  Scrapes and bruises will heal, things going wrong will be blog fodder and for heavens sake, when I'm rocking on the porch, strawberry daiquiri in one hand and a walking stick useful for poking passing whippersnappers in the other, I need something to talk about and relive.

One life, end date unknown.  Live it fully and with joy.  Then fall off your perch and pass on.