Life. Religion. Flow.

In these 3 short months, it has dawned on me with extremely scary consequences that the typical Chinese cultural heritage of 先天下忧而忧， 后天下乐而乐 and 流芳百世 point of view which has been a main driving force for me to be involved in environmental work has been slightly invalidated. The truth is – after 5 billion years, the sun will swallow the Earth and there will be nothing left of human civilization to remember what anyone has done.

What else then is left of the motivation to save the environment, especially the whole environmental movement is only for humans as Gaia will go on without us, just as many species were previously wiped out in the mass extinctions eons ago.

Many great people have found immense satisfaction from helping others and serving others. For example, Lincoln’s ultimate ambition was to “ link his name with something that would redound to the interest of his fellow man” - that moment was when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Perhaps, we are social animals and seeing the joy on others' face do give us much satisfaction.

Alas! That is one satisfaction that does not come from environmental work cause Earth is not one living creature that will smile at you and warm your heart. Even saving dogs at animal shelters rewards you with warmth!

What about religion? To serve a God's mission seems to be one ideal solution. After books like “ A short history of nearly everything” , “Selfish Gene”, “ The rise and fall of the third Chimpanzee” and “ Guns, Germs and Steel”, we humans really can already broadly explain the existence of life and the subsequent evolution/ development into various civilizations. The only 2 missing gaps are:

• Where did the singularity that created the Big Bang come from?
• Scientists have succeeded in creating the amino acids with electricity (mimicking lightning) using gases present on the early earth such as methane, ammonia and hydrogen. Amino acids are the compounds that make up the proteins in all living organisms. The gap is how did amino acids make the jump to RNA? We already know how did RNA evolved into DNA, subsequently into proteins and the beautiful branch of life.

Videos such as “Who wrote the Bible” removed any last needs of religion for me. Learning that King Constantine had a big role in coordinating the contents of the Bible and that without Han WuDi, Confuciusim may not have risen to be overriding philosophy of East Asia, affects me deeply about my ethical values and religion choices.

What then is left with certainty? Flow.

This seems the only ..... something that will ensure happiness and a state of enjoyment. It becomes a shift from the purpose, the end target to enjoyment of the process.

The destination is no longer important. It is okay that I am not sure what lies at the end, at least I will be sure that I enjoyed the journey.