This Blog Post Is EPIC

Slow motion. A woman with her hair blowing in a light breeze walks confidently between library shelves packed with books. Where did the breeze come from? Nobody knows, but it doesn’t matter because the the camera has transported us to a laboratory, where a young man smiles to himself as he mixes chemicals. Is he remembering a joke from last night, or does he really enjoy chemistry that much? We can’t ask, because now we’re on the beach, and a well-dressed lady is picking up seaweed with some sort of oversized tweezers. She’s very happy about the seaweed. The music swells! Now we’re watching dirty men in jerseys fighting for victory. And then the happy people are gone, but not without leaving us with the distinct impression that going to a certain university will make every moment of every day nothing short of epic.

I went to university. I remember the library. There was no breeze there. There was no music. And no one mistook me for a model on a catwalk when I walked between the shelves. As I recall, my time there was mostly spent sitting at tables with a headache and a looming deadline.

Cinematography has come a long way. These days, the simple act of walking down the street or jogging in the park can be recorded in vivid high definition from a hovering drone with orchestral accompaniment and dramatic colour filters that make our eyes pop and convince our minds that what we are seeing is the very definition of epic.

Really? I walk down the street every day with #nofilter and no soundtrack. I see the same cracks in the footpath and peeling paint and one time a bird pooped on my hat. Even with a drone, it would be hard to convince anyone that particular moment was epic.

And yet it was.

I was breathing. Do you have any idea how many intricate miracles have to align perfectly to make that possible? I was walking. Without even thinking about it, my muscles obeyed my subconscious commands and transported me home. Is that not epic?

Yes, the weeds were growing through the cracks in the footpath. Insignificant seeds defying our engineered layer of stone and pushing life towards the blazing sun. Is that not epic?

A creature who can soar through the sky and sing his part in the dawn chorus eats the berries growing in profusion beside the road, gains strength from them, and deposits the seeds somewhere else where they can push up new life bursting with new berries for new generations of birds. Yes, some of them were deposited on my hat. Is that not epic?

We don’t need professional HD video editors to make the world seem like a wonder. It already is. We don’t need soundtracks to transform everyday moments into epic events. They already are. Every moment of every day is already overflowing with more miracles than our minds can comprehend.

All we need to do is open our eyes.