You are amazing. Yes, I’m sure you know this, but it’s hard to imagine just what a miracle you truly are.
Your daily life is pretty normal. You make your bed, go to work, and eat lots of potato chips. But you’re totally unaware that you are a rare occurrence in nature.
If we were to diagram how you came to exist, it would boil down to a bunch of statistics and things often found written on the pages of school textbooks, like: “hypotenuse,” “halocarbon-14,” “periosteum membrane,” and “Mister Weinstein’s science class is so boring that I am literally going to die.”
So it’s probably good not to spend too much time thinking about what a miracle you are. Because if you thought about it too often you’d get cocky.
You’re alive. That’s what matters. What’s the point in talking about it? What’s the big deal?
Well, the big deal is this: You are here. Right now. You actually get to exist in the cosmos for a brief blip upon the timeline of the universe. And this is very—I repeat—very rare.
The exact circumstances that formed you predate your mother and father. They predate your ancient ancestors. They reach back to your prehistoric great-great-granddaddies and great-great-grannies who managed to stay alive long enough to make babies.
But I’m out of my league here. I’ll be the first to admit, I know nothing about science or math. Still, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend I didn’t fail Mister Weinstein’s science class. (I did.)
Let’s take a look at the simple probability of your life. We’ll start with your dad meeting your mom. That seems easy enough, right?
Nope. It wasn’t easy. Do you realize how statistically uncommon it is for two people to meet? You’re looking at odds of one in 20,000.
Basically, imagine your mom going to a baseball stadium and introducing herself every male in the seats to…