Hardwiring

We’re hardwired to hate. It’s pointless to pretend otherwise; it’s how humans got where we are. We evolved to protect our own and our resources and destroy anyone who’d take them from us. Including, pre-emptively, anyone we think might take them from us. It’s a powerful force in our lizard brains.

But biology isn’t destiny.

We’re hardwired to screw, yet no society on earth is without restrictions — as imperfect as they are in intention and practice — on who can screw whom and when. Some people in some places even choose to spend their lives celibate.

We’re hardwired to eat. But what can be eaten, when, and how much, along with rituals around eating (sometimes referred to as table manners) differ widely but in some form exist everywhere. Some people in some places even choose to starve themselves, sometimes to death, for reasons they find strong enough to override the wiring.

We can override the hate wiring, too.

I don’t see it happening in the middle east but I cling to the idea that it can. If it doesn’t we will destroy each other and in the process, ourselves.

I have nothing to offer by way of advice. What I do have is these images, taken at the Greenmarket this morning, to say: there is still abundance, even on this abused, trampled planet. If only we can find a way to share it.