Issue No. 70

It takes two people to create you, six if you include your grandparents, 14 if you include your great-grandparents, 30 if you include your great-great-grandparents, 62 if you include your great-great-great-grandparents, and the numbers keep doubling with each preceding generation. As you trace your lineage back, the exponential growth means that hundreds, then thousands, and eventually millions of individuals contributed to your genetic makeup.

In just ten generations, you have 1,022 ancestors. In 20 generations, the number swells to over a million. This vast network of individuals from different times and places, each with their own unique stories and experiences, culminates in your existence today.

Can you imagine that? Let's just take those ten generations as an example. 1,022 people were necessary to create you. You're a culmination of these people's experiences. Have you ever wondered what kind of life they lived? What stories they could have told you? What lessons they could have shared? I sometimes wonder how they viewed the world. Were my ancestors in my country or somewhere else? What were they doing? What were their dreams and aspirations? How did they survive their suffering?

It's astounding to think that since our species first appeared approximately 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, about 108 billion people have lived. For perspective, our current global population is around 8 billion. That’s 13.5 times the number of people whose skeletons now rest underground. 108 billion dead. They have become dust. They were created from dust—the same materials this planet offers us eventually return to their constituents. The atoms that make up our bodies are the same atoms that make up dirt. It's as if dirt has temporarily become aware and then returned to being unconscious. If you were an interdimensional time traveler, seeing our history in a glance, you might think our planet is a breathing organism, recycling its particles in a cycle of consciousness and unconsciousness.

We often forget that our mortality is an imminent, necessary, and absolute event that nobody can prevent. It will happen. The question is when and how. Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? In five years? Before your marriage? After your first child? When you lose your partner? When your dad dies? Who's to say? It is there like a shadow following you every day.

When I remind myself of all these people who came before me, I am humbled by the immensity of life. Those numbers above, the 108 billion, are just humans. I am not counting the other animals and the millions of other years I have not accounted for in that calculation. And yet, with this abundance of life, we share it with no other location in the known universe.

We are all here, on this lonely planet, floating in the vastness of space.

And yet, every day, we live our lives as if we can get another one.

To waste it away is such a shame. It’s almost a disrespect to the people who came before you. You don't have a duty to them, but you do have a legacy to uphold.

Recognize the miracle of your existence. Every breath you take is a gift from the past, a bridge from countless lives that have endured and persevered. Cherish your time, live with purpose, and strive to leave a legacy that honors those who came before you. You are the result of a million dreams, a billion struggles, and an unbroken chain of life that extends back through the ages. Make your life worthy of that heritage, of that torch that has been passed down to you. You’re a legacy that remains.

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Until next week,