Conception

Conception. Can you conceive of it? You may see sperm as male and the ovum as female. But what happens following conception? Is gender determined immediately? No, it takes from 16 to 20 weeks to see that via an ultrasound. At the time of fertilization, chromosomal sex is determined. An XY chromosome means male, while XX means female. Is it over yet? No, next up are the gonads. Are there testes or ovaries? Are we done yet? Listen, a human fetus doesn't even develop its external sexual organs until seven weeks after fertilization and even then, it doesn't look male or female. It takes another five weeks of sexual differentiation, when the fetus produces hormones that cause the sex organs to grow into either male or female organs. This has to be when gender is determined, right? How long has this kid been alive by now? Three months? Isn't that a trimester? Can't it make up its mind?

Believe it or not, I did not intend to get into gender identity. It does seem to be a topic that has been confounding people lately. Anyway, I'm just happy that a sliding scale, or a spectrum, has been introduced into our culture. I've just never been a fan of binary thinking. That may be my creative thinking. Hold on, though. Don't we all begin at conception? Even that goes all the way back to either a Creation or a Big Bang Theory or something, right? What's that? It's off the air? I wasn't referring to a TV show, but thanks.There just has to be a link between referring to our beginnings as conception and the underlying creative nature of all living beings. This should be good news for creatives, right? You know who I'm talking about. I don't mean arts and crafts. 

Creatives still don't seem to jibe with the way things are done, do they? Those that do these things still don't seem to understand creatives. Everyone wants to be one, don't get me wrong. Anyone that can successfully express a single metaphor receives high praise by their peers. When we are born, we are the closest to conception we'll ever be, at least until we do it ourselves. We are almost always distraught and can't express the experience to anyone. Some creative bro once coined the saying "We spend nine months trying to get out and the rest of our lives trying to get back in?" Was it John Travolta in Look Who's Talking? You know, I tried to get the opening of that movie for the video above but I couldn't clear the rights. 

So, there's conception. What about perception? Didn't someone say we create the universe by perceiving it? Are we conceiving and perceiving at the same time? 

"You are the universe experiencing itself" - Alan Watts

"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." - Carl Sagan

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the Weather." - Bill Hicks

 Don't you see? Everyone was using the bathrooms. Then all of a sudden we became aware that everyone was using the bathrooms. So, we created all-gender bathrooms. Wait, what? Did you know the outside door can be locked? So, anyone can go in and use one of the stalls but prevent anyone who has to go from using the other stall? At least that's what I heard. Did you just put me on one side of your binary thinking? Yes, you did. Did you not read what I said about that?

Life does not end with conception any more than evolution did with our developing opposable thumbs. That last bit is from another Bill Hicks quote. I might as well include it. This post is already quote-heavy. Why not?

"Folks, it's time to evolve. That's why we're troubled. You know why our institutions are failing us, the church, the state, everything's failing? It's because, um - they're no longer relevant. We're supposed to keep evolving. Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs.  You do know that, right?" - Bill Hicks