The history of Man is one of pestilence and war, destruction and death, music and art, beauty and wonder. For every Nero there is a Cicero, for every death there is a birth. The history of Man is a tale of a succession of such wonders that fill the mind and heart with suffocating joy. Mozart, El Greco, the Parthenon and the Wright Flyer. The history of Man is the history of the mind of Man, shaped by the struggle to simply survive in a world that cared not if he lived or died. It is not our death that defines us, but what we do with our lives. And what Man has done with his life has led to wonders beyond compare, with more wonders to come, until the stars wink out and the universe is no more, for Man himself is the wonder.

Were the heavens filled with diamonds
Gleaming in the night-dark sky
And the sun a flaming orb of molten gold
And the moon and Venus beckoning
So close to touch the eye
Would the story of mankind be differed told?
Would our gods be of a different name
Our courses different laid
The hunters leave behind the bitter cold
And history a different tale
With endings torn and frayed
New faces on the statues or the old?
Suppose the oceans purest wine
And bread grew on each tree
Would man have worked and fought for substance sold
Had all been given food and drink
Without the asking, free
Would science, art and wonders then unfold?
The hunter and the gatherer
Who roamed the ice to live
Survived the saber-tooth by being bold
And handed down to us, his child
His finest gift to give
A brain composed of finest flaming gold