The weather is absolutely splendid, with just the slightest zephyr to make the air in these heights sweet and refreshing for my daily climb with Boulder. I feel more and more like a good beast of burden whose concerns can be described as primitive since its focus is mainly that of a full belly and much sought after rest. Nothing else is important, although anxiety and stress invade sometimes my mind. When not completely physically exhausted, I do remember my immediate family members, my wife and our children and my aging parents and siblings. Does this qualify me as a normal human being or are there more parameters needed for being one?

What is a human being? Is it someone who controls his instincts, obeys the laws of the land, plays a certain role in his community, works and pays his dues regularly? Or is it a lot more than that? Does it include morality, where it starts and ends never clearly defined because of its highly subjective nature? Literature and philosophy like us to go beyond the obvious and supersede and eschew certain truths that lead the individual to certain prejudicial comforting truths. I am of the opinion that we should never stop climbing the moral mountain, leaving all religious, cultural and so-called civilized precepts aside, facing the realities of this world alone to attempt to reach a perfect understanding of ourselves and that of others. The decision to embark upon such a daunting project should come from within and be resolutely our own as it is meant to transcend all accumulated conventions and moral concerns.

The conclusion, which I was successful in reaching, since I have all the time in this afterlife, is the following: misanthropy is acceptable because human being cannot stop judging each others and are unable to judge themselves and therefore end up being always unfair to each others because their cursory and often prejudiced judgement is the convenient attitude they like to adopt.

And this inevitably leads to anxiety regarding many human concerns of which the most important are: contingencies of many kinds, a happy life, good health, death at the end of our lives, and dealing with imponderables.

 Happy ascension to all!