There is so much we do not know.
As an aside to this, most of us, at one point or another, ponder our life purpose.
But is our human purpose to learn? Were we all sent here to scale up? To take our awareness to another level? Is there a possibility that we keep coming back, over and over again, until we get it?
There’s so much I read about just this morning that has me wondering and thinking about all the things we do not know.
The first came in the form of Hitler and this historic date.
On November 9, 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch’s took place for the second day in Munich. Here, Hitler and the Nazi Party planned to seize Munich and use the city as a base for a march against Germany’s national government. But the Nazis failed to overthrow the government. Sixteen died that day, and Adolf Hitler fled.
It wasn’t long before Hitler came back, trying his hand at another “putsch,” which is a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.
Also, on this date, fifteen years later, in 1938, Kristallnacht began. Hitler’s pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria. That large-scale act of anti-Jewish violence. He’d only just started. Again.
By 1944, over six million Jews would be dead.
He tried once and failed. Then he plotted, regained strength, and made a bigger move the next time. And by his maneuvering, we saw one of the greatest massacres in history.
I believe it is our job to learn. We too have seen a coup attempt in recent times. Many have brushed it under the rug, as I am sure they did in Germany with the Beer Hall Putsch. But then the next wave of fury and insanity came and forever left the world scarred. By one narcissistic man with an evil vision. We might learn from this.
Shifting gears completely here, to another year and another discovery. This, on November 4, 1925. A man named Robert A. Millikan confirmed the existence of cosmic rays from outer space. He gave a speech to the National Academy of Sciences at Madison, Wisconsin, telling them so.
Cosmic rays are atom fragments that rain down on the Earth. They come from outside of our solar system. Fast, they are. Cosmic rays travel at the speed of light and have been blamed for electronics problems in satellites and other machinery.
They were discovered much earlier, in 1912, by the Austrian physicist Victor Hess. He had made a series of ascents in a hydrogen balloon to take measurements of radiation in the atmosphere. Anyway, that’s when he noticed the existence of those rays. He learned.
Many things about cosmic rays remain a mystery more than a century later. One big thing? We don’t know exactly where they are coming from. Most scientists suspect their origins are related to supernovas (star explosions). But the problem with that is how they come. Their origins appeared uniform. Planned? Scheduled? Perhaps.
My point to the contrast between the two topics is this. Just on this date in history, we see two significant world events. Things we can, or should be, learning about. And to extrapolate, things like this go on every day on this planet, unbeknownst to us.
Meetings behind closed doors, planning our futures?
Galactic cosmic rays down on us from undetermined sources?
It all can be overwhelming if we think of the enormity of events circling our planet at every moment.
And if it is our human purpose to learn, where do we begin?
I think for the most of us, we begin at the beginning. We try to understand that kindness, love, and compassion are a good start to everything. No matter the subject.
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“The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.”
– Antisthenes
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“The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly.”
–Wendell Berry
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“Research shows that you begin learning in the womb and go right on learning until the moment you pass on. Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless.”
– Michael J. Gelb
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“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
– B.B. King
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Learning from the cosmic rays and horrible people.
