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| Living Matter LiDoña Wagner |
Frozen in place on the second floor of the humongous HUMAN EVOLUTION MUSEUM in Borgos, Spain, I stared incredulously at hominid and human skeletons and their accompanying back-lit prose, writ large, reading and rereading about how ancient grandmothers in Africa changed the course of human evolution.
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| Skull Front LiDoña Wagner |
Days later, I returned to the same space and read again about how our human ancestors gradually shifted into settlements when they discovered that by cultivating existing plants, especially grains, they could have a steady supply of food. As settlements grew, our ancestors evolved into homo sapiens whose life span increased enough for an overlapping of generations.
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| Skull Side LiDoña Wagner |
Grandmothers began to outlive their hunting partners and as they aged, ever in tune with their environment, they began caring for and training infants and young children, allowing mothers to go into surrounding areas to gather plants and cultivate life enhancing grains. This accelerated the homo sapiens population.
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| Skull Back LiDoña Wagner |
Human Lifespan Adds 30 Years
In contemporary society, who among us is alive today because of scientific advances in cancer treatment, fitness expertise, and technological aids such as pacemakers and prosthetic limbs? I am!
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| Yoga Pose LiDoña Wagner |
A breast mastectomy and chemotherapy at age 57 allowed me to outlive my mother’s 55 years. Radiation and chemotherapy for metastasized breast cancer at age 79 allowed me to outlive my father’s 75 years. A pacemaker at age 82 allows my tired heart to keep me going and might allow me to reach 95, the age of two now deceased great aunts.
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| Life Transforming LiDoña Wagner |
Put this in the context of scientific evidence that everything in the entire universe is continuously undergoing evolution – millions of experiments are perpetually going on to find the ‘fittest’ forms of existence.
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| Life Rising LiDoña Wagner |
Put bluntly, what are you doing to promote human evolution into a species that can continue to exist on this blue marble in its vast universe of being-ness? Are you a wise elephant without ivory tusks or an extinct Dodo bird?
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| Life Morphing LiDoña Wagner |
I am grateful to Ukraine for continuing to send grain to all parts of the world. I am grateful for every action taken to address climate change and care for Mother Earth.
4 comments:
HUMAN EVOLUTION MUSEUM? I had no idea there was such a place. Not that I'm surprised once I think about it, but I hadn't. Reading your blog threw me into memories of hearing the "poetry" (there really is no better description) of Loren Eiseley's THE IMMENSE JOURNEY. You probably were the reader for those first powerful verses when I was introduced to them. Though I am accustomed to being surprised and enriched by your art work, the images this month were definitely unexpected! Thanks.
Continuing your healthy lifestyle, I can imagine and hope to share this earth with you much longer than just one more decade! Yay for science and good information!
Indeed, long live the grandmothers!
Thank you for this striking reminder. Right now, impaired at 86, I feel I can only support Earthjustice, Corporate Accountability, and Concerned Scientists.
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