Are We Human or Are We Dancer?

Yes, I only used that title because of the song. This post has nothing to do with dancers. Mostly because I can’t come up with enough dancing jargon to make it jazzy.

So now you’re only left with one half of the title that remains relevant.

Which now leads me to today’s #letsblogoff prompt: What do you take for granted?

I ran through a quick list in my head – Colgate, Kodak, Toshiba, Ben & Jerry’s, Honda, Penguin Group, Maruchan…not necessarily in that order. Yes, I do take those names for granted quite often. But then I thought, where do those names even come from? Yes, yes, I know…some are people’s actual names and some come from Japan and I have no idea who came up with them or what they really mean. But that’s exactly my point – those names are human inventions. And that brings me to what I realized I take for granted the most often:

being human.

To be human means to be alive, to be a highly functioning organism in this complex environment we call the universe, to be filled with potential, and, yet, to still be finite. Someday, I will die.

That’s part of what it means to be human.

And you know what?

I’m okay with that.

Because, for now, I’m still here. Air is still pumping through my lungs. Blood is still coursing through my veins. Neurons are still firing in my brain (just how many is irrelevant). That chicken pot pie is still digesting in my stomach. You get the picture. I am alive. That’s pretty cool. Actually, that’s more than cool. That’s pretty fantastic. That’s pretty epic, even.

Right now, my body is carrying through functions and processes that I don’t even know about. I don’t even know about! Right now, there are parts of my brain that could be lighting up like your neighbor’s leftover Christmas decorations that are STILL blinking over the garage every night. And I don’t even know it. My heart is battling all of the cholesterol I just ingested from that microwaveable pot pie. And I can’t even feel it. My alveoli are filtering out whatever the AC is sending into my trachea as we speak. And I didn’t even realize I’d swallowed anything.

Pretty fantastic.

Pretty epic.

Better not take that for granted.

Because one day, taking it for granted won’t be an option. Because one day, I will die.

But that’s okay.

Because right now, this very moment, I’m not taking the few seconds I have to operate as a human for granted.

~:~:~

To read what others have been taking for granted, you may click through the table below.

And don’t forget, your breath is not infinite.