One day she was eating purple grapes and thinking about why purple grapes are purple. She flowered a thought that she texted to him:
“I like Tolle’s concept that flowers represent nature’s first frivolous/decorative creation; but really isn’t a flower a representation of nature’s adaptation[1]? A green plant develops some alternative red pigment – a variation on the original green – and a bee that develops red photo-detectors in its eyes can distinguish the red from the green. The bee is drawn to the red, and so this adaptation helps the red plant – and the red-detecting bee – survive and reproduce more productively than their former monochrome originals.”
He texted back: “same diff.”
“I don’t think so! I think the two have completely different concepts! One says the source of creation created flower just for the silly sake of beauty and pleasure; the underlying moral is that life wants us to delight in life. The other concept says life is the eternal evolution of randomization allowed to progress infinitely, positively reinforced by reproductive success. The underlying moral – then – is that nature is nature and there is no eternal/moral preference or opinion on joy vs. pleasure vs. the relativity of human emotions, except that they may be a reproductive adaptation – just like the green plant developing red pigment.”
His response: “same diff.”
“I think not same diff at all – you just maybe are tired and don’t want to think it through. One says there is meaning in life that may involve our emotional/mental spirit; the other says life is random and driven by reproductive success.”
He did not text back, but her thoughts continued. ‘…One says that I should go outside and play in the leaves and eat an apple, and one says that I should stay inside and study and culture my mind, as it will benefit me reproductively.
~
‘But it won’t benefit me reproductively! If I study and become a doctor I am actually less likely to have children – and more likely to have less children – than if I spend my time enjoying myself and delighting in nature and life and sex and creation!
~
‘But my reproductive frequency alone will not indicate reproductive success if I cannot secure the further reproductive success of my reproductive offspring. So then I should keep studying so that I can find a job to ensure the health and wealth and reproductive success of my children, myself, my bloodline, my spirit. Even though the studying may result in less reproductive offspring – and less physically cultured (vs. mentally) reproductive offspring – than if I were to enjoy the moment-to-moment and trust that the earth itself can provide for my future.
He still did not text back. Perhaps the problem was that one or the other did not trust the future.
~
She had another thought: ‘However, what if the reality of the current situation on this earth is that the human population is overpopulating the earth, and reproductive success must decrease in order to ensure the stability of the species as a whole. In this case, reproductive abstinence is more productive to the life of the overall species than reproductive success (even though complete reproductive abstinence would not at all result in the species’ longevity).
She took a break, for she was tired. Upon reflection, she wondered: ‘but how much am I myself and how much of me is connected to the human species as a whole. I am much more my mother than I am my friend’s cousin’s mother. However, I am much more human – more my friend’s cousin’s mother – than I am a grasshopper or a worm.
Perhaps a grasshopper hopped by just then, or perhaps the mention of the species conjured an image of a green grasshopper cocking its legs at awkward angle and springing soaring through the air. She felt a warmth of life that connected her to the grasshopper and to the worm, and to the bee and the red and green ferns. And she smiled and enjoyed the warm sunshine on her face.
~
Much later he texted back: “Same thing. It’s a dynamic process.”
[1] Tolle, Eckhart. “The Flowering of Human Consciousness: Evocation.” A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. New York: Penguin, 2005. 1-5.
