It's Shrove Tuesday.  It's the last day of so-called Ordinary Time until after Easter, the last time to engage in the frivolity that marks life outside of Lent.  It's also the time of Mardi Gras, the riotous celebration of humanness that draws people from around the world to New Orleans.
     Shrove Tuesday is the final gasp of life as it is.  Not that life isn't what it is, but that we cannot understand life as life without accepting that for all of its mirth, life remains a profound mystery:  why us and no one else?  Why are we here and others are not?  Why?
      Enjoy the moment, savor the day.  Step into the celebration, the gathering, the happiness and joy.  But remember:  who are we to say who we are?
     We are photons, we are particles, we are plasma.  At the same time, oddly enough, we are human beings:  why?
     In an accidental world, we will never know.