Cancer

[nimblelight]

I climb the terraced mountain, my pulse throbbing in my ears, noting the occasional scrap of modern life invading the once pristine realm of lichen and deer droppings. Below me spreads a brim of greenery, mighty firs reduced to slender stalks of feathers with distance, an open field of gold, and at the very ends of the earth the mighty sombrero turns back upward, a starched fold of purple stands shading the horizon. A dark feathered form glides overhead, too high for me to recognize the species, low enough to appreciate the efficiency in its movements.

For a moment I try to see the mountain from above, like this avian, my own form reduced to a brown circle bobbing alongside a thick tangle of fur and canine teeth, to feel the currents pushing me inexplicably upward. The land itself now has a pulse of its own, the bloodlines rivers and streams. Every living thing becomes a cell, working to keep the whole alive, yet the entire organism is continuously evolving, new organs emerging from the ashes of the old. What could possibly disrupt this beauty, in which even the greatest wrongs play a part?--yet what I see next terrifies me, sends me recoiling back to my own vantage point on the ground, shocked, and I find I owe my very existence to everything that repulses me.

Something is growing, without bound or limit, without conscience, invading every corner of the earth. Even a few specks of it can develope into grand patches of dead concrete, and it spreads through the blood, the breath. No, it is not viral, it was once part of the world it is destroying. It sucks energy, multiplies faster than it kills itself. It is cancer.

[petad]

huh?

[nimblelight]

Well, thinking about the world as a living organism, I wondered where we came in.

The answer was sort of obvious.

[Fooby]

That is sooo good! I wonder... how many novels have you written?

[kevinalexandersmith]

life causes cancer

[evil-nick]

Reminds me of Agent Smith's monologue in The Matrix And the Simpsons.

"Fat Tony is a cancer in this fair city, and I am... hey what cures cancer?" - Chief Wiggum

[dan de man]

Originally Posted by kevinalexandersmith

life causes cancer

life is an inefficiet self curing cancer that argues its not the problem

[evil-nick]

No, life is an STD

[Seager]

Originally Posted by kevinalexandersmith

life causes cancer

Imperfect design causes cancer.

[kevinalexandersmith]

Originally Posted by Seager

Imperfect design causes cancer.

So you're saying there is a design at work?

[Seager]

Nope, I'm saying there isn't - unless the designer was flawed.

Anyway, I just meant it as a jab. I didn't want to derail the thread.

[nimblelight]

Originally Posted by Seager

Anyway, I just meant it as a jab. I didn't want to derail the thread.

No worries. It's only a rough draft

[Seager]

So, on topic...

This brings up a question that someone once asked me.

"If you were forced to make a choice between killing a human or a dog, which would you choose?"

Or, from a more general standpoint "If you could push a button and wipe out all of humanity in a single blow without damaging the rest of the world or other life, would you?"

The fun part is in justifying your answer, not in the answer itself.

[kevinalexandersmith]

Years ago I knew a young lady who lived in a 65 year old house. She was always saying her house was “perfect”, but I was over there almost every weekend fixing one thing or another.

I didn’t want to offend her, but eventually I had to ask how she could think her house was “perfect” when there were so many things wrong with it that I was there fixing them all the time. What she said didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time, but I later came to find it fairly profound.

“You have to see the perfection in the imperfection”

I know it sounds ridiculous and impossible. I didn’t get it at the time either. I hope one day we all will learn to recognize the perfection of the imperfections.

Maybe we are the world’s cancer. Maybe we are the Earth’s greatest imperfections, but can we see the perfection in our imperfection?

[Fooby]

Originally Posted by kevinalexandersmith

Years ago I knew a young lady who lived in a 65 year old house. She was always saying her house was “perfect”, but I was over there almost every weekend fixing one thing or another.

I didn’t want to offend her, but eventually I had to ask how she could think her house was “perfect” when there were so many things wrong with it that I was there fixing them all the time. What she said didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time, but I later came to find it fairly profound.

“You have to see the perfection in the imperfection”

I know it sounds ridiculous and impossible. I didn’t get it at the time either. I hope one day we all will learn to recognize the perfection of the imperfections.

Maybe we are the world’s cancer. Maybe we are the Earth’s greatest imperfections, but can we see the perfection in our imperfection?

After all that, my answer is simply yes.