On the Origin of Being is a love letter from Mother Nature, desperate to send humankind a crucial message. The book is not laced with mysticism, but as a reader, I couldn’t help but imagine that Mother Nature possessed the minds of the authors, Luke Comer and Jenny Powers, to warn us of the consequences of our modern lifestyle— like the relentless stress of overwork, the social disconnection driven by our digital dependency, and the normalcy of unhealthy diets, causing us our daily miseries.
The world is moving so fast but our bodies are evolving slowly, and the effect of this can be seen at home, at school, and in workplaces. For instance, our body needs 8 hours of sleep to function at its optimum but sometimes our children have no option but to sleep for 4-6 hours because, after school, they have to do their homework until the wee hours. The book greatly explains the tug-of-war between modern life and our primal bodies and how it is ripping us apart. But, thankfully, the clues on how to navigate our modern lives without compromising our health can be learned from the lives of our ancestors, especially the hunter-gatherers, who didn’t suffer from modern health concerns such as heart issues, weight issues, and diabetes. We are designed to adapt to our environment to survive and thrive. This ability is encapsulated in our genes passed on by our ancestors. Mother Nature is still looking out for us but will we take heed of her cautions?
