Glory in the Highest
* from the book PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World
Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you
wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still
breathing and your heart is 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 colors floods into your eyes, registered by
nerves that took God or evolution or some process 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
be of 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 ever think about it.

On this day, like almost every other, 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
into 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 it finds
its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This blessing recurs 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 domicile in every culture that has
preceded you. The floors aren't crumbling, and the walls and ceilings
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 they're safe for you to use.

Amazingly, the water you need so much of comes out of your faucets in an
even flow, with the volume you want, and either cold or hot as you
desire. It's pure and clean; you're confident no parasites are lurking
in it. There is someone somewhere making sure these boons 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 closet are many clothes you like to wear. Who gathered the
materials to make the fabrics they're made of? Who imbued them with
colors, and how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?

In your kitchen, appetizing food in secure packaging is waiting for you.
Many people you've never met worked hard to grow it, process it, and get
it to the store where 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 flawlessly. 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 who invented, 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.

There's more. You can smell odors and hear sounds and taste tastes, many
of which are quite pleasing. You can think! You're in possession of the
extraordinary gift of self-awareness. You can feel feelings! Do you
realize how improbably stupendous it is for you to have been blessed
with that mysterious capacity? And get this: You can visualize 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 many 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
decide-car, plane, bus, train, subway, ship, helicopter, or bike-you
have confidence that it will work efficiently. Multitudes of people who
are now dead devoted themselves to perfecting these modes of travel.
Multitudes who are still alive devote themselves to ensuring that these
benefits keep serving you.

Maybe you're one of the 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 laborers put
in long hours to extract oil from the ground or sea and turn it into
fuel so 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 realize 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 planes
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 recognize 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 a 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 9:30 a.m. You've been awake for two hours, and a hundred
things have already gone right for you. If three of those hundred things
had not gone right-your toaster was broken, the hot water wasn't hot
enough, there was a stain on the pants you wanted to wear-you might feel
that today the universe is against you, that your luck is bad, that
nothing's going right. And yet the fact is that the vast majority of
everything is working with breathtaking efficiency and consistency. You
would clearly be deluded to imagine that life is primarily an ordeal.

*