Glory to the highest

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning at the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is still beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep.

You can see! Light of many colours floods your eyes, registered by nerves that took our creator some millions of years to perfect. The interesting gift of these vivid hues comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.

Did you know that the sun is located at the precise distance from you to perfect service? If it were any closer, you'd fry, and if it were any further away, you'd freeze. Here's another one of the sun's benedictions: It appears to rise over the eastern horizon right on schedule every day, as it has since long before you were born.

Do you remember when you were born, by the way? It was a difficult miracle that involved many people who worked hard on your behalf. No less miraculous is the fact that you have continued to grow since then, with millions of new cells being born inside you to replace the old ones that die. All of this happens whether or not you think about it.

On this day, like almost every year, you have awoken inside a temperature-controlled shelter. You have a home! Your bed and pillow are soft and you;re covered by comfortable blankets. The electricity is turned on, as usual. Somehow, in ways you're barely aware of, a massive power plant at an unknown distance from your home is transforming fuel intro currents of electricity that reach you through mostly hidden conduits in the exact amounts you need, and all you have to do to control the flow is flick small switches with your fingers.

You can walk! Your legs work wonderfully well. Your heart circulates your blood all the way down to replenish the energy of the muscles in your feet and calves and thighs, and when the blood is depleted if finds its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This blessing recurs over and over and over again without stopping every hour of your life.

Your home is perhaps not a million-dollar palace, but it's sturdy and gigantic compared to the typical domicide every culture that has preceded you. The floors arn't crumbling, and the walls are holding up well, too. Doors open and close without trouble, and so do the windows. What skillful geniuses built this sanctuary for you? How and where did they learn their craft?

In your bathroom, the toilet is functioning perfectly, as are several other convenient devices. You have at your disposal soaps, creams, razors, clippers, tooth-cleaning accessories: a host of products that enhance your hygiene and appearance. You trust that unidentified scientists somewhere tested them to be sure that they're safe for you to use.

Amazingly, the water you need so much of comes out of our taps in an even flow, with the volume you want, and either hot or cold as you desire. It's pure and clean; you;re confident no parasites are lurking in it. There is someone, somewhere making sure these facilities will continue to arrive for you without interruption for as long as you require them.

Look at your hands. They're astounding creations that allow you to carry out hundreds of tasks with great force and intricate grace. They relish the pleasure and privilege of touching thousands of different textures, and they're beautiful.

In your cupboard are many clothes you like to wear, Who gathered the materials to make the fabrics they're made of? Who imbued them with colours, and how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?

In your kitchen, appetising food in secured packaging is waiting for you. Many people you've never met worked hard to grow it, process it, and get it to the shop you bought it. The bounty of tasty nourishment you get to choose from is unprecedented in the history of the world.

Your many appliances are working astoundingly. Despite the fact that they feed on electricity, which could kill you instantly if you touched it directly, you feel no fear that you're in danger. Why? Your faith in the people that who invented it, designed, and produced these machines is impressive.

It's as if there's a benevolent conspiracy of unknown people that is tirelessly creating hundreds of useful things you like and need.

There's more. Gravity is working exactly the way it always has, neither pulling on you with too much or too little force. How did that marvel ever come to be? By some prodigious, long running accident? It doesn't really matter, since it will continue to function with astounding efficiency whether or not you understand it.

Meanwhile, a trillion other elements of nature's miraculous design are expressing themselves perfectly. Plants are growing, rivers are flowing, clouds are drifting, winds are blowing, animals are reproducing. The weather is an interesting blend of elements you've never before experienced in quite this combination. Though you may take it for granted, you relish the ever-shifting sensations of light and temperature as they interact with your body.

And yet there's more. You can smell odors and hear sounds and taste tastes, many of which are quire pleasing. You can think! You're in possession of the extraordinary gift of self-awareness. You can feel feelings! Do you realise how improbably stupendous it is for you to have been blessed with that mysterious capability? And get this: You can visualise an inexhaustible array of images, some of which represent things that don;t actually exist. How did you acquire this magical talent?

By some improbable series of coincidences or long-term divine plan, language has come into existence. Millions of people have collaborated for centuries to cultivate a system for communication that you understand well. Speaking and reading give you great pleasure and a tremendous sense of power.

Do you want to go someplace that's at a distance? You have a number of choices about what machines to use in order to get there. Whatever you deiced - car, plane, train, bus, bike, ship or helicopter - you have confidence that it will work efficiently. Multitude of people who are now dead devoted themselves to perfecting these modes of transport. Multitude who are still alive devote themselves to ensuring that these benefits keep serving you.

Maybe you're one of hundreds of millions of people in the world who has the extraordinary privilege of owning a car. It's a brilliant invention made by highly competent workers. Other skilled labourers put in long hours to extract oil from the the ground or sea and tun it into fuel so that you can you can use your car conveniently. The roads are drivable. Who paved them for you? The bridges you cross are potent feats of engineering. Do you realise how hard it was to fabricate them from scratch?

You're aware that in the future shrinking oil reserves and global warming may impose limitations on your ability to use cars and aeroplanes and other machines to travel. But you also know that many smart and idealistic people are diligently striving to develop alternative fuels and protect the environment. And compared to how slow societies have been to understand their macrocosmic problems in the past, your culture is moving with unprecedented speed to recognise and respond to the crises spawned by its technologies/

As you travel, you might listen to music. Maybe you've got an MP3 player, a fantastic invention that has dramatically enhanced your ability to hear a stunning variety of engaging sounds at low cost. Or maybe you have a radio. Through a process you can't fathom, music and voices that originate at a distance from you have been converted into invisible waves that bounce off the ionosphere and down into your little machine,where they are transformed back into music and voices for you to enjoy.

Let's say it's 9:30am. You've been awake for two hours, and a hundred things have already gone right for you. If three of those things had not gone right - your toaster was broken, the hot water ran out, there was a fatty stain on the shirt you wanted to wear - you might feel that today the universe is against you, that your luck is bad, that you got out on the wrong side of the bed. And yet the fact is that the vast majority of everything is owrking with breathtaking efficiency and consistency. You would clearly be deluded to imagine that life is primarily an ordeal.