When Pigs Fly

According to Wikipedia, The phrase "when pigs fly" is an adynaton. Adynaton (plural adynata) is a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to insinuate a complete impossibility.

The question then becomes, "What is or is not possible?"

It is obvious from the start, that for the phrase "when pigs fly" to have become an adynaton, someone must have thought that this was a completely impossible event. When you look at the facts though, it is clear that in the most literal sense, pigs are flying all the time. Furthermore, due to advances in science and technology, it is not impossible that an actual pig could sprout functional wings in the future. The idea that there will always be barriers in place to such an event is extremely pessimistic and underestimates the endless possibilities that lie ahead of us.

As a skeptical optimist, I believe in possibilities, but have my doubts. I question everything, yet believe that if something is not proven impossible, then it must of course be possible. That leaves open a lot of possibilities! To an outsider, it could look like I trust people easily. In fact, what I do is take a leap of faith. I have an extremely difficult time trusting people, however, I have seen that paranoia can be severely damaging. People can really be surprising sometimes, in both good ways and bad. I have not always gotten what I expected, so I stopped expecting so much and started to just wait and see how things would play out. I often proceed with caution, but try not to be so quick to accuse someone of deceit and ill intent. After all, they could very well be telling the truth! If they are being deceitful, the question then becomes one of motive and intent. If an elaborate explanation to justify accusations of ill intent is necessary.. then I seriously doubt that there could be much truth to the accusation. The simplest answer is still typically the right one. Conspiracy theories are fun for debate, but likely shouldn't be directed towards friends and family.

I think someday I will go to Mars, but in all likelihood, the pigs will fly there first.