That’s a great metaphysical question people have pondered for millennia. It’s also what I ask myself when I’ve walked to another room and can’t remember why.

That started as a quip, but the two are as related as the forest and the trees. The meaning of a life can change over the decades: to learn and grow, to raise a family, to serve the community or nation, to tend to loved ones, to create a legacy. Decades are composed of years; days are made of moments. For a life well lived, I hope my purpose in each moment is at least consistent with, and often motivated by, my answer to the greater question: What am I here for?

Image: Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash.

Five years ago, I was visiting San Antonio when the first cruise ship passengers flew into nearby Lackland Air Force Base for quarantine. Seven million deaths later, there’s still no consensus on how the Covid pandemic began. Reputable scientists revised their hypotheses in light of fresh research. Politics muddied the waters. Laboratory leaks are real, though most viruses new to humans start as spillovers from other species. Bias is real too, though scientists have more guardrails than most of us against letting it shape their conclusions.

Newly appointed CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced in January that analysis of the limited data available pointed to a virology lab leak in Wuhan, China, as the source of Covid-19. The Department of Energy, the FBI, and the CIA all reached that assessment well before the current administration took office. I haven’t found details of their reasoning, for which they expressed “low confidence.”

Meanwhile, among scientific papers favoring the Wuhan seafood and animal market as the source, one published last September in the journal Cell intrigues me. The research team did genetic analysis of hundreds of environmental samples gathered in and near the market in early 2000. Samples of the new coronavirus were concentrated in the corner of the market with live wild animals, particularly raccoon dogs. Study of mutations gives evidence—but not proof—of when and how the virus spread, perhaps from bats to raccoon dogs to humans.

Proponents of both theories agree on one thing about how Covid-19 began in Wuhan: Nobody knows for certain.

​Images: (left) Raccoon dog, akin to foxes and named for its appearance; (right) Wuhan Institute of Virology, which studies coronaviruses in bats.

“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”
           – Darren J. Beattie on X, Oct. 4, 2024 (archived)

Some of my best friends are competent white men. Many of them, in fact. And if the competent white men among my friends were in charge, things would work very well.

I doubt the acting undersecretary of public diplomacy at the State Department questions the meaning of white or men. That leaves the muddier question of competence. It includes character, skills, judgment, willingness to learn, ability to inspire others, and so much more.

The competent white men among my friends avoid groupthink. They know the difference between silencing dissent and seeking common ground. They listen to voices from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, knowing the best decisions follow from seeking out multiple perspectives. They recognize competence and potential wherever they find it, whether in women or people of color or other white men.

If competent white men were in charge, we would soon see competent people of every stripe at every level of leadership in our institutions. That is, if we want things to work.

Image:  Anonymous man. Photo by Bruce Mars  on Unsplash. 

Fewer and fewer Americans are old enough to remember the deep fear of polio, the closed swimming pools, the schoolchildren lined up for the new vaccine. The disease left one of my schoolmates in braces for life. Globally, polio killed or paralyzed about half a million children a year. Today endemic polio occurs only in Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan, with fewer than a hundred cases last year.

One thing I’ve learned through polio work is that viruses don’t respect boundaries. Business travelers and vacationers can bring them back unawares. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborate to contain deadly infections like Ebola before they reach American shores. Their scientists took the lead to eradicate smallpox and nearly stop polio.* CDC can’t do it alone. Protecting Americans requires neutral access to WHO data, laboratory samples, and outbreak alerts from many countries, not just our friends.

Vaccines to protect American seniors from flu are re-formulated for each year’s strains. They would be less targeted if our scientists couldn’t learn what strains are circulating abroad. Setting aside issues of WHO efficiency and funding, U.S. global leadership, or other nations’ health, I know that I am personally safer when CDC and WHO work together.

* Major funding for polio eradication comes from Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and foreign aid from many nations. UNICEF coordinates vaccine procurement and community education.