Of course we being humans choose to sweep it up, clear paths, put another log on the fire and keep living as usual. Hooray for the stubborn survivors.
Look at it from a certain perspective and the majority of our species is entirely insane for living where they do. We only have the capacity to survive, much less permanently live, on less than a quarter of this planet. Most parts of that that don’t reach deadly cold temperatures in the winter are prone to reaching deadly hot ones. Even discounting unexpected, unpredictable deadly natural disasters like earthquakes, and volcanoes, we’ve come to expect and plan for hazardous seasonal storms. Not just blizzards here, but hurricanes along the Atlantic coast, tornadoes in the Midwest, torrential rainstorms like the one last fall and wildfires in the western U.S. No matter what happens, though, people just rebuild and keep going.
At what point can an entire species be classified as lunatics? I’m pretty sure we’ve passed it.
With all these other dangers, it’s a bit ridiculous to put snow on the same level, but weather definitely qualifies as a force of nature. Said forces really are things that should stop or put a damper on normal activities, but here we are anyway. As crazy as it is … it’s also extraordinary. We cope with winter through snow plows, indoor heating and high-tech fabric coats. But people have been living here, on this continent and other regions equally as inhospitable for millennia. Somewhere way, way, back in prehistory, a group of our ancestors walked out of Africa and just kept going.
They walked across deserts, what would have been ice fields, over and around mountains – they crossed millions of miles. No one can really say why – there are plenty of scientific reasons for migration to unexplored territories, like dwindling food supplies and the need to support huntergatherer societies, conflicts with other groups, or changing climates. There’s also the possibility that they were just looking for a place that wouldn’t threaten their livelihoods on a regular basis. That didn’t really work out.
All of those reasons for human wanderings are perfectly valid. However, none of them apply to why almost six decades ago, we chose to further our explorations by strapping people into pressurized metal canisters and tossing them up into the airless, endless, empty void of space. The same void of space where people are definitely not meant to survive, at all, for any period of time.
Lots of evidence stands that humans are prone to starting things just for the sake of doing them, and then sticking around for the next however-long to prove it can be done.
Once again, here we are, existing in a place we really weren’t meant to and taking extensive precautions to ensure the continuation of the existence to which we as a species have become accustomed.
Another annual victory for the vengeful, stubborn survivors.
— Nina Collay is a junior at Thornton Academy who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, wrestling with a heavy cello case, or poking at the keyboard of an uncooperative laptop.
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