part of Tree of Life in Golden Nature Guide of 1962
THE TREE OF LIFE IN A GOLDEN NATURE GUIDE

Above, you see the very pages of the little Golden Nature Guide to Fossils, copyright 1962 -- mother-bought from a drugstore book-rack -- that more than any other book I had in those days propelled teenage Kentucky farmboy me onto the trajectory my whole life has taken.

In 1962, evolution wasn't a popular subject in rural, Bible Belt Kentucky. The above pages depicted a view of Life on Earth that was logical, beautiful, and fossil-verified. It was thinking outside the box of a conservative society that in those days, with a few inspiring exceptions, supported the growing US war in Vietnam, looked upon civil rights supporters as troublemakers, and simply ignored the first prophets of planetary ecological disaster, like Rachael Carson.

The small section of the Tree of Life shown above seemed to be bent to one side by the winds of time. The whole representation expressed movement and evolution toward higher states. It was colorful and suggested open-ended patterns of thought that launched me as something that was generally confused, clumsy and inept, but dazzled by that first glimpse of the mystery, grandness and potential of an evolving Universe, with me in it.

Today, in celebration of those two pages shown above, I want to share two thoughts that for awhile have been ripening in my mind. Sharing the thoughts is appropriate because it shows that even after all these years I'm still swimming in the conceptual current those pages summoned forth for me.

THOUGHT #1: In biological evolution, a species may take millions of years to form, but any fool in half a second can stomp to death the last of the species for no good reason at all. Mental evolution to a certain extent balances that fact. In mental evolution, when a great truth is set before an open mind, in a flash, vast deserts of ignorance, apathy and falsity can be made to blossom.

THOUGHT #2: The Tree of Life implies forgiveness for early mistakes, for the process of evolution itself rests on better adapted and luckier species replacing less well adapted and unluckier ones. Intuitively we know that the now-extinct labyrinthodonts and placoderms are guilty of no misbehavior and shouldn't be condemned, even though their adaptations eventually proved inadequate. With the same logic, I forgive myself and others for earlier behavior that now is troubling to remember. The wind of time causing the Tree of Life to lean to one side is a current of forgiveness.