Hands On the Cave Wall

We live a limited life span. Physical death is common to us all whether you embrace the idea of life as finite, or life as everlasting. Putting our beliefs aside and looking at death phenomenologically, it is nothing more than an organic process common to all species as far as we know, in the organic world.

An organism is reproduced; (i.e.) a uniquely manifested copy of its parent seed(s) is produced, and like its parents morphs through various development cycles including reproduction according to its species blueprint, and eventually, in an instant, morphs one last time from animate to inanimate which is to say; no longer possessed of the energy field that makes animate life forms ‘alive’.

What is clear about this process is that each copy of each species is unique, and exists uniquely in the world for its lifetime. It is known to others who co-exist uniquely at the same moment in time.

Then it uniquely ceases to exist often leaving a copy of itself to take its place. And perhaps unintentionally, a record of its unique existence might be left in some medium that transcends its own time.

A unique footprint or a complete skeleton preserved in the fossil record, and experienced by others perhaps millions of years after its occurrence. Unintentional shadows preserved by nature.

Intentional Shadows

It seems clear that all members of all species are present in their own time, uniquely.

Humans in particular seem to be fully aware of our own presence and individual uniqueness, and at times we go to great lengths to explore it, define it, and express it.

To make an intentional record of it vs. an unintentional footprint; a shadow in the pre-historic mud.

At times the record is physical like the hand shadows of unique human beings on the walls of the Cave of Hands in Río Pinturas, Argentina dating from 13,000 and 9,500 years ago.

At other times it may be a legend fading in and out of the ‘present’ oral tradition, whenever that may be occurring in linear history.

Whatever aims the record may embody, it clearly teaches us and reminds us we are individually unique, and alive in our present time. So what shall we do with that time?

“To Be” or “To Make”?

“To be or not to be. That is the question.” Really? Is whether to live life or end life the real existential question, or is there an alternative question; “To make, or not to make; footprints or cave hands? That is the question.”

Footprints are made by everyone and everything. We leave them everywhere. In the mud for the fossil record, on social media, and in the digital cloud. They are a record of an individual to be sure.

We live, we make footprints. They are an unintentional shadow of our existence.

Cave hands are intentional records. They are not made by everyone. They don’t just happen. They are shadows meant to be seen. They have meaning. Silently they respond to the proposition of whether “to be” or “to make.” They answer; I am “to be,” and I am “to make.”

Homo Faber vs Homo Sapiens

Look at the cave picture again. Place yourself inside the cave, look up at the wall, and see your unique hand dancing in the fire light. “I see me. I am unique, and I am among others. I am here in the present. I am still here even when I am gone. Others will see what I have intentionally left of me. What will I make to leave?”

Something made by us is something made of ourselves. A hand on the cave wall, a vaccine that cures, a story that carries us into the invisible places of our minds.

Our intentional works like hands on the cave wall, are visible to us and others in the present and may remain for those in a future ‘present time’ when we are gone.

We all have our time. What will we do with it? Leave footprints in the mud or a hand on the cave wall?