We remember 9/11 but most of us don’t remember this…

I’m convinced that we humans need more positive reminders.  We are wired to remember the negative.  How many of you can recall, with vivid detail, not only the events of 9/11, but everything about the day.  Where you were, what you were doing, who you were with, and a thousand more details.  And, all this would be magnified if you were in NYC, Boston, or D.C. that day, or if you were connected somehow to one that was lost on that awful day in American history.

We are wired to remember the negative.  It’s part of our primal, survivor hardwiring.  It just is.

Here’s a positive reminder of something from this past decade that was mostly missed by the very same American population.  In June of 2000 a group of scientists gathered in the East Room of the White House to celebrate an amazing discovery of the human genome.  Our own instruction book, if you will, had finally been assembled.  Are you kidding me?

Nope.

A bunch of  crazy scientists had labored since 1988 to uncover all the DNA of our species, the hereditary code of life.  The text was over 3.1 billion letters long and carried within it all the instructions for building a human being.  This discovery had been thought to be out of our reach.  The search was tedious and beyond time consuming.  And yet somehow, these mad scientists had assembled the most complex of puzzles into ONE, one piece at a time.  Are you kidding me?

Nope.

AND, here’s the best part.  Do NOT miss this.  President Clinton stood alongside the head of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, and said a little something to mark the occasion.  Amazingly, most of you have never heard nor seen this words…

Until NOW.

Clinton said, “Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.  Today, we are learning the language in which God created life.  We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, and the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift.”

No kidding.

Time flies.  Today, slow down and remember the challenge of the big three questions I pose to you and to me.

1.  What will be your life’s work?

2.  What role will LOVE play in your life?

3.  What about faith?  What are your deepest held beliefs and how are you building them more consciously, cultivating them more deeply, and challenging them more regularly?

2020 will be here before you know it.  The best way to remember this decade will be to live it on purpose.  Purposely toward mastering your craft, with those that you LOVE, and aligned with your deepest held beliefs.  This is how we are meant to live.  AND, it is the only hope for authentic happiness.

AND, if you want to read something good, something hopeful, and something that will stretch your deepest held beliefs, check out Francis Collins book, appropriately titled, The Language of God.

Thank you Francis for your magnum OPUS, the discovery of who we are genetically speaking.  The world will never be the same and someday we will mention your name alongside Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and Darwin.  Very cool, Francis.

Very cool…