It’s Spring in Australia and we are being serenaded by hordes of cicadas. Whenever I walk out with the dog there are several of these charming insects needing rescue on the road. There is something very appealing about cicadas, with their big eyes, strong wings and slow gentle legs. And, of course, sadly. they have only a short adult life.

Reminiscing about these creatures and their limited lifespan, one tends to compare it with ours. They emerge, they live briefly and noisily, and then are gone. Are we any different? We are born, we live and communicate with others and then we die. Before us, a million generations went through the same cycle and passed into obscurity, and after we have gone, it will all be repeated. Unless, of course. the human species fails to evolve further and goes extinct – see previous blogs. We can view human existence as little different from that of cicadas, and of many other species. and ask “What is it all for?”

Religions claim to have purpose and know all the answers. but they differ widely in believing how we should behave. And most religions claim an allegiance to some other unseen non-worldly entity, a god or gods who are believed to have told us how to live. This despite the fact that these religions arose relatively recently and were long predated by the existence of earlier Homo sapiens. Are these various gods and their peculiar demands also known about by other possible human-like species on other planets surrounding the millions of stars in our galaxy, and in the millions of other galaxies?

It seems to me that as a conscious species we are unique, and because of the vast distances extremely unlikely to come into contact with other ‘human animals’ from elsewhere in the Universe. And so to repeat my question: “What is it all for?” Can we do no better than the cicadas? As informed human animals, we are aware of the other humans who inhabit our planet, and of the myriad of other lifeforms that surround us. The least we should do is respect, support and cherish each other.