I was asked what I see when I look at people doing things, living their lifes, how things are for them. I think sometimes it's forgotten, or brushed aside as irrelevant or for later, the cosmic context in which we live. The simple miracle to be alive, against all possible odds (as physicists like to point out the specificity of conditions that make a universe and every cosmological bodies and their relations possible). And the improbability to be awake in each our own unique creaturely bodies and minds (and some say soul) is rarely discussed directly in theoretical discourse as to make each exposition meaningful. Scientists say life evolved from a single cell out of one bubble (and there were many) that happened to contain materials for DNA and with somehow also a semi-permeable membrane. It all started there. The improbability of a regular bubble attaining these forementioned characteristics - it is against astronomical odds. That biological life prospered into the extreme diversity of creatures is bewildering (which doesn't mean it is not true). The world we live in is, for lack of a better word, Eden itself.  It is paradise on earth - life's many forms have diversified and prospered - it happened here, on earth. Evolution, to nay sayers, seems too simple a mechanism; it is not a mechanism at all. It is a phenomenon of such miraculous outcome. And then there is the human being. Some think human beings are the steward of life, others think humans are meant to rule this world. Still others believe everything here is made with the express purpose to be manifold resources just so the human lives.  The human being indeed began simply, almost like animals, foraging and hunting other living organisms for sustenance ; but somewhere in time, began to differentiate itself from other life forms. The human being made ties with other human beings, for practical purposes and maybe not so practical purposes (when practice has to do with survival). Human beings made art, imprinting onto the world the impressions he or she had of that world. There is something to be said about this, but it may be a digression to the discussion at hand. When societies began to form, human relationships became more complex. The flourishing of social contexts happened and specialization occurred. When we look at our story from this cartoon perspective of what had to have transpired, in many places and many times, and look at ourselves and what we have here now, it becomes obvious that the specific beliefs, the specific activities, the specific outlook, the specific social network, they are in a state of being created and fostered. There is meaning everywhere, meaning fostered and nurtured and developed out of humankind's time on this rare oasis we call earth. The human being is continually open to meaning. Everything a human being does or involves himself or herself in are constructs in history.  What this meaning is in context of the great universe we now know we inhabit perhaps we do not know. (Though Carl Sagan's famous line regarding this question is "We are made of stardust. We are here so that the universe may know itself.")  I think when I look outside myself, I see difference, but this difference is not at the essence of what transpires. That we live in societies is no doubt absolutely true, but the involvement of each person in the multitude of things (now recognized as historical) is the testament of celebration. Perhaps I err earlier in saying the cosmic context is not beheld in regard; certainly, ethics and morality, methods of organization and dissent, theories regarding art and culture, all these and more implies the cosmic context. If this that works imply the cosmic and historical context, then, oh my, wonderment at the miraculous is everywhere. This life, or these lives, we are celebrating our improbable existence in the here and now, full of emotions and awe transformed to every interesting and mundane words said and action taken.