The Miracle of You

You are a miracle.  Every one of your direct ancestors - going back through all the generations before your generation to the beginning of humanity as we know it - lived to pass on the DNA that became you. 


Author and blogger Dr. Ali Binazir did the actual calculations and the probability of your existing at all is:

 1 in 10^2,685,000

Various analogies can be given to try and wrap your head around this number.

One example is this: two million people getting together each day to play a game of dice with a trillion sided die...and they all come up with the same number.

Another example comes from Buddhist teaching: Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere...the probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water - in the middle of the preserver.  On one try.


Here is my analogy: Let's say there was a factory that makes confetti cake sprinkles and of all the millions of sprinkles, there is one that has been marked with your initials on it. Let's say every employee in the factory takes all the lids off every container in every case of sprinkles in the whole building and throws them up into the air as high as they can simultaneously. Let's say someone is walking around in random patterns all over the factory and this person lifts up his hand in the very moment the sprinkles are launched...only to catch the one piece that has your initials on it in the center of his palm. 

A recent article on a Catholic web site does a great job on explaining the sanctity of this...

http://blog.adw.org/2011/09/the-probability-of-you-existing-at-all-is-almost-non-existent-a-brief-refelction-on-the-contingency-of-our-being-based-on-a-recent-math-article/

And here we are above in one big group photo - Generation X!

You landed in the palm of God's hand.  Live your life like it is a miracle.  It is. 



________________________________________________________________________________
(c) 2012 photography and writing by Chloe - all rights reserved

Ground Kontrol

I recently went with a friend to Ground Kontrol, a well-loved retro Portland arcade. The place was full of Gen X and Gen Y people, and a lot of familiar classic arcade games like Tetris, Donkey Kong, Tron, Pac-Man, Centipede, and others. I noticed a few priceless Gen X images around and I decided I would have to snap a few shots to share...

This image will forever be ingrained in the visual memories of  Gen Xers.   

Mappy?  I don't remember this one.  

Very cool under-lit tables bring ambiance to the restaurant/bar area.  

Friendly, bearded people drinking unpretentious beer, a prominently displayed

 recycling center, and a menu with gluten free options on it..what could be more Portland than this?  

Fiber optic lighting, and restrooms that have to-the-pixel Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man tile mosaics on the bathroom floor, and a fun overall ambiance....

In addition to regular video games, there are also a lot of pin ball machines on the upper level.  Here are some images from an a seriously old-school early 70s game:

As Gen Xers lived a nomadic existence in their growing up years, an arcade was a place that they could go that would more or less be the same from one town to another. Video games and pinball machines have truly become part of the landscape of our collective experience.

Thanks for reading, and may you have the kind of week where you unexpectedly get 1000 bonus points 

all at once....

________________________________________________________________________________

(c) 2012 photography and writing by Chloe - all rights reserved