Try or Try Not

God plays dice. That sounds wrong because we imagine God as Daddy. We ask him for what we want and he provides while dealing with whatever cost and bother the gift generates. 

You know, that's not how it works. 

To tell the truth, the universe (aside from things like puppies) is impersonal, somewhat arbitrary, somewhat predictable, and quite unforgiving. Actions have consequences. If we don't know that in our bones and begin treating the world with respect and restraint, we are done. We are already getting a taste of what's coming: drought, floods, monster storms, wildfires, famine, rising oceans, heat fatalities, climate refugees, mass extinction of species, and multiple feedback loops driving the biosphere to collapse. God keeps playing dice. We keep betting boxcars (two sixes), imagining we can win by rubbing a rabbit's foot. Meanwhile, the cost and bother accumulate because nobody is keeping track of what we owe. If we want to survive and thrive, we are fortunate that the ancestors kept track of what worked and what didn't in a list of things to do and things not to do. However, the list is incomplete. We find ourselves in novel circumstances and we don't know what to do.

I know. I hear you. You want reassuring words to distract us while we rush toward catastrophe like a frog in a saucepan that hopes the water is not actually getting hot. Forget hope. Care or don't care, your choice. If we care, we will notice what's happening and make a plan. If we have a plan, we can play the odds. If we don't care, God doesn't care. If we don't plan, there is no plan. If we don't try, then what will be will be. We've known that since Moses. How did we forget something so obvious and simple?

For fun, switch the metaphor to poker. I wager a Moses. You raise me a Yoda: "There is no try. Do or do not." Yoda was telling Luke that he could, if he chose, move a spaceship by controlling The Force with his thoughts. You know, that's just a story. Luke isn't going to do anything with his thoughts unless his thoughts move muscle: leg muscle, arm muscle, face muscle, voice muscle... somebody's muscle, because he's going to need help. Doing is not a thought; it is muscle guided by thought making things happen. What's more, you can't be sure what you are doing until it's done. Before it's done you are just trying. We try and we learn from consequences and then keep trying because it ain't over 'till it's over. I raise you a Yogi Berra. 

This is getting confusing: dice, Jedi, frogs, poker, baseball. Let's settle for reality. I'm all in. I want to see the actual cards. 

Aha! We have been dealt thermodynamics. 

Here in this universe,
when we try to get what we want,
it makes a mess.

All you can do with a mess is
find a use for it,
ignore it,
dilute it,
hide it,
export it
or clean it up,
which makes another mess.
That's how it works in this universe.

We thought we were doing good when we invented engines for the heavy lifting, concrete and steel to build cities, fertilizer to multiply crop yield, wells and pipelines to fuel transportation and heat homes. Now all of that is done. Now we can see that what we were really doing was investing fossil energy in a growth spiral that requires ever more energy to keep going. Meanwhile the products of combustion accumulate interfering with the radiation of heat into space. We tried to do good, but what we really did was put a lid on the pot and dial up the temperature. 

On a positive note, we aren't done yet. 
On a scary note,...we don't know what we're doing.

Not to worry.

When what to do is unknown,
try or try not.
If we try,
then we learn,
and try again until it's over.
That's how it works in this universe.

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Alberta Renewable Energy Pause Timeline: Drew Anderson, The Narwhal, May 6, 2024

Ignoring Climate Change is just Too Expensive: David Suzuki, June 12, 2024

Tears for Jasper: CBC News, July 25, 2024

The Jasper Wildfire: CBC News, July 26, 2024

Photos of Alberta Oil Sands: Amber Bracken and Drew Anderson, The Narwhal, November 2023