What is the life stage of humanity?

Unlike with a single human being, it is impossible to know the full potential cycle of life for the entire species. We cannot know whether we are collectively in our infancy or at some other stage in our full development - if it can even be said there is some ultimate end to it. Without knowing the ultimate end, we cannot determine the stages themselves. Truly, we do not yet have a single extraterrestrial life with which to make comparison and any intellectually honest answer would require many examples of "life out there". Statistically, it is said there must be abundant other life in the universe. Although I have fond wish for that to be true, I'm also aware that somewhere and at some time there must be or must have been a "first life" and there's yet no sound reason to say we are not the first just as there is none to warrant saying we are. The answer is indeterminate. If we judge ourselves by our ignorance regarding how much life there actually is in the universe, its nature and location, one is compelled to say we are simply toddlers in that respect. Surely a truly "mature" species has a more complete knowledge of life beyond their own world. All we actually have is speculation. Some are working very hard to turn at least a small piece of speculation to tiny but cold hard fact.

Compared with other species on the planet, one might say we are further along in complex consciousness but, again, looking at our mismanagement of the complex, dynamic and highly interdependent environment upon which we all completely rely, it's not entirely clear whether our additional complexity is a survival advantage or disadvantage here on Earth. With regard to the rest of the universe, it is certainly unclear what advantages and disadvantages our complex consciousness gives us. There are certainly some who think we are much better off staying home and foregoing everything but a simplistic awareness - "Don't ask questions" is their motto - but aren't there always? I suppose I count myself among those fully prepared to ask every question I'm able to ask and chance adventure as deep into the unknown as I'm able to get before I am stopped by the inevitable ignorances. Personally, I can think of no life more fulfilling than to continuously seek what I have not experienced, what I do not know or understand. Curiosity is what keeps my heart beating and without the constant wander, the constant question - "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?" I would surely perish. Of course, I've in no way experienced all that can be experienced right here at home, but I've always believed that to fully understand the nature and value of "home" one must venture until the journey leads unavoidably back to where one began. Call it "home" if you like. I call it the "center" and have never entirely known it to have an identifiable place or time as much as it is an evolving idea I carry with me wherever I happen to be. I suppose I will find that "center" when my personal need to journey comes to an end.

What we can say is we seem sufficiently and collectively mature enough to begin asking this question but there is a far greater number of us unprepared to ask it than there are those with the insight to ask and perhaps find some piece of an answer. It is always the few that lead the many.

Perhaps it will not always be so.

As for what has pushed my transitions through moment to the next in my life, you probably have already guessed - an obsessive curiosity and a deliberate attitude that I will never reach a point where any of my answers are entirely satisfying. I'm at peace with the fact that, as much as I wish contentment, I will never have it and I even encourage discontentment to avoid my one and only fear - apathy.

Paradoxically, the joys my lack of contentment brings me through constant discovery give me a measure of contentment that, as you might guess, makes a bit nervous. I continually seek serenity and, when I momentarily find it, I'm soon driven to end it before it begins to sink in.

I sometimes envy those for whom serenity is everything, their depth of place, their intensity of time. Maybe they too sometimes envy the adventurer their restlessness and unique discoveries. Certainly, one is encouraged to think the ideal human life is a blend of the two. I like to think there is a purpose for both extremes in the universe we've all yet to experience.