The meaning of life, the purity of sport and scientific literacy...

This post is inspired in the following convertation, probably one of the most inspiring conversation I listened to in weeks... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dC_nRYIDZU&list=RDCMUCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA&start_radio=1

I got to be fortunate or lucky, that to me, life flows so clearly in my mind, in the same way the dry sand flows from your fingers...smoothly but relentless... Maybe is because the unforgetable experience of lossing my grandparents, my father in law...who knows...but life is very present on me. If there are types on men and women, I am definetely into those who are not leaving the important to the never comming future of greatness and abundance of time. Life is what you "choose" to do know, hopefully passing the mashmellow test, and managing instand gratification wisely...

I am not sure if free will is a weak idea, and the extend of which randomness, genetic inheritance, social environments and other external factors affect so greatly all our emotions and decisions, making free decision making more an abstraction than a reality.

Putthing that much weight on context to understand how people behave is probably the most rational explantion for compasion. In the absence of free will, anything terrible that other human being do to us is an unfortunate result of their past and external factors, and hence, we should feel empathy more than anger, no matter how hard that is. Taking aside the difficulties in managing  that emotionally, even at professional level, the mere fact of considering that bacteria, wild animals, or human wellbeings are subject to limited free will is not only sensible, but to me liberating. No in the sense of avoiding my responsabilities, but on considering every act of evil a poor outcome of a poor life and circumstances, relegating pure evil to something more appropiate of disney films.

Keeping freedom aside, I love the idea of sport as perfect experiment and school of life. There are little chances to get houndreds of experiments in a year so pure and free from politics (note that here I am referring to the personal experience of sport, not the sport as a global comeptitive aspect). Whether is climbing, running or martial arts, there is little space for delegating or blaming others of our own lack of power, talent or persistence (although some do). Every day of training is a chance to show our most honest example of commitment to an idea (fitness, perfection, improvement, health) with very little external reward. I am particularly focused here on the lonely sport practice, those where we are alone with serious oponents, whether is another rival or natural challenges, or even our physical limitations. Those precious moments where the protection of family, friends and any other social organization is at least distant...and we have this true moment of ownership... so desired and yet so frightening at the same time... Maybe is only my own experience as I am someone who train 90% on alone, and celebrate the dialoge of moving of crafting my personal journey towards flow in nature, at speed and lengths that exceed what is healthy for the body, but is a gift for my own existance. Hope that makes sense...

A society that is to busy being busy, overloaded with superficial information, weak forms of communication and company, afraid of being alone with their own ghosts and treasures...is, worse of all, not sufficiently literate in the scientific facts or the highly probable "truths" that science have given us. To throw some examples that will illustrate my last idea of the post...:

1. The fact that pandemics happen and are more and more likely due to biodiversity loss versus a conspiracy to control our brains with vacination and regulations
2. The fact that human based climate change is a danger to the stability of our only livable planet versus that is a hoax from lefties and hippies to increase regulation
3. The fact that highly dense  and cheap forms of energy are no longer abundant or cheap to extract and use, forcing to transition to renewables, which are very limited in scale and power density, versus the illustion that there are technological fixes to everything and we will create economic growth without a material base...

The weakness of the society is shown, despite the numerous exeptions of excellence and wisdom, in the fact that even in proven challenges consensus is lacking...We are lost discussing the agenda for too long... and yet we do not agree that corona virus, climate change and  peak oil is real, and we either organize to thrive or we are almost certain to fail... What is the purpose of endless discussion of non cienctific and founded opinions? what is the purpose of life, if not to work together to make life pretty and prosperity lasting?

I found meaning in the pursue of causes that extent my lifetime, my range and my current capabilities...those that, undertanding the limitations of science, work with the most likely explanations and transition to shape a future that is better or at least more robust. I am wondering if we will thrive as always based on the extreme efforts of a few, or will we join forces towards fixing those very likely challenges we face as a society in a closed planet?

What is more worth than that? why do we waste time on marginal probability scenarios and confrontation? Why if we learn from the practice of rigous sport to engage into scientific literacy and work on futures that, whether we freely choose or not, are feasible enough to keep us moving?

I did not expect order here...just summarizing some inspirational ideas of some beautiful people talking about what really matters, somewhere in america...