I heard this story about Neanderthals a couple of days ago, and promptly went into an existential tailspin. Not so unusual. I mean, existential tailspins are a frequent occurrence in my life. It seems a day doesn't go by when I don't find myself asking: "Why am I here?" "What am I doing?" "Am I missing something?"
For some reason, I could vividly see in my mind's eye this pile of Neanderthal bones down in the "pit of bones." These "happy" little Neanderthals lived long ago on this planet, and met their end, and somehow ended up together in a great pit.
And they have been down there for 430,000 years! Seems like a long time. Time just seemed to expand in my mind. My tailspin just grew exponentially. My life, my meager existence, was revealed to me as just a tiny blip in an infinitely grander scope of time and existence.
Some times time passes slowly. Some times time flies by. But really our lives are just brief, infinitely brief glimpses of life and light. How to make the glimpse count? And what does that mean?