Lately I have been playing lots of Tetris. It's all about solving problems, and it's got me thinking about the nature of human consciousness. Why? Because that's the nature of human consciousness, or at least that's the nature of human consciousness in people like me. We like to solve problems, to encounter life as a puzzle that needs solving. So I think, a lot, about everything, all the time, even about the fact that I think a lot, all the time, about everything.

This analytical orientation has brought us some of the wonderful innovations that make modern life in the Western world so pleasurable. See a need, and fix it, even if it seems to defy nature, as does air travel or organ transplant or refrigeration, etc.

But. This analytical orientation also brings us much of our modern misery as we continue to insist upon conquering life rather than accepting its ambiguity and brevity as inevitable. As I watch my elderly father struggle with diseases near the end of his life, I feel both humbled and impotent. I'd like to magically "fix" all of this, his confusion, weakness, and pain. Instead I alternate between rage and bewilderment, wondering how in this world of wonders, we can ultimately become so helpless that there's nothing left to do.

But play Tetris.