Saturday, April 30, 2022 9 AM Central

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These days it feels like the world is forcing us to adapt to its ever-changing dictates on a daily basis. I wonder, though, are humans set up to adapt so quickly and despite the heavy leanings of Intellect, bombarding our inner work with the voices of culture that have molded themselves within us? Are we capable of breaking those inner bonds, when the outer messages are reinforcing them at every turn?

As I watch my friends trying to cope with some of the largest dilemmas we have ever faced—mass annihilation, World War III, new and unexplainable illnesses—I believe these things are only making us as a species stronger.

One frequent analogy Einstein and the Party uses is when fish were allegedly tossing themselves out of the water and onto the land as a way to adapt to the evolution of the species. Scientists believe that this transformation began before they migrated out of the water. According to Flinders University paleontologist Professor John Long, early species of fish had “spiracles”—basically blow holes in the tops of their heads. Long theorizes that these early fish had the ability to first breathe in air through the water, and later used those same holes to adapt to living on land. As they continued to adapt, they switched to breathing through the nose and mouth, as humans do today.

Much like the transition of the caterpillar into a butterfly, we will never know those exact moments when the fish made these changes, or even why. Long says, “The spiracles eventually became the hearing canal in which tetrapods transmitted sound to the brain via tiny inner ear bones, and this has remained throughout the evolution of fish right through to humans. If not for the bold evolutionary experiments of these prehistoric fish breathing in air through the top of their heads, we might not have evolved such a keen sense of hearing.”

Join us Saturday as we discuss our own “kitchen table adaptations”—those ideas, actions and changes we have adopted in order to live fuller, richer, deeper lives that still allow us to thrive in the face of adversity.

Always free. All are welcome.