Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in–an interesting hole I find myself in–fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.
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We need to be on the watch for complacency and not being attuned to the nature of the potential for change in whatever situation we find ourselves in. If not the puddle will continue to get smaller and smaller.
We need to watch for the change. To many of us go on with our lives/work and don’t notices that there are environmental
changes happening. Eg: systems, product ,software, weather,hardware, ect.
Nothing is static and everything around may change… I think I would like to be change ready…
This quote invites me to consider that: Thinking that promotes certainty and rightness of outcome, current position, role, or state of being. Such thinking blinds us to change external or internal so we hold on to what is familiar, comfortable and “certain”
We can live like in a dream, all fir right to me.
When one get conscious on the situation in a particular life o life experience, the comfort zone, the one when one think “life fits perfectly well to me”, evaporate with some light and information, Adams call the sun and some heat wind.
We can take control of our life, that’s what I think we need to be on.
We need to check the assumptions we make about things. We are here only for a time and won’t be youthful forever and circumstances change. In the example the hole is not made for the puddle but the puddle followed natural laws to fill the hole.
For most people in the world, things are not predictable. For us in the West, things are mostly predictable. BUT…All we really have is this moment in time.
You have to challenge yourself to not be a complacent thinker.
Small unseen changes are happening everywhere.
We need to watch out for the fact that the world is fragile and just because it seems ok right now things can change instantly. The threat of nuclear war, meteors, natural disasters and the general disregard people have for nature needs to be addressed.
Technology can give us the capabilities to ensure our long-term survival by populating other planets and expanding our race into space.
Although I believe that this is bound to happen eventually, there is a lot that we can do to speed this process up.
We need to watch out for our own long term future in this Universe.
Sometimes the current fit is just because it is, not for any deeper reason, sometimes it is. I think Douglas Adams in this case is making a case for the meaninglessness of life. It is good to somehow both enjoy the present (mindfulness – to be in the now) and still consider what is happening and where we are going, this is a difficult balance which like a tight rope worker requires constant readjustment.