ON THE NATURE OF ORGANIC MATTER

To proclaim us organic curtsies to no reverent ideal, no brackish intent. In the mastodon of inorganicity, the organic is a minuscule flirt of molecules. Pulled from non living elements, the mystery of life exhibits no obvious purpose, and is not driven by a force different from the rules of physics that govern all substances. In what context can we possibly unearth living matter’s function? The leaden rock may sit undisturbed for millions of years. Yet, we living things perish in a hairs breath of time, a satchel of momentary existence which quickly grinds us back into earth’s abundant void. To what do we owe this mortal brevity?

Inorganic matter puts up no fuss regarding the laws of physics that govern the universe’s hotbed of stuff. In exchange for this obedience it reaps a tingly reward- infinite existence. Organic matter, deprived of this buxom relief must be then in another category. Exactly what puts us in that gruesome cadre is the fact that we oppose certain laws of nature, and, thus, pay a devilish bargain with immortality. For example, the 300 foot sequoia tree defies gravity unlike any inorganic substance. It may live for 1000 years or more, eventually succumbing to gravity’s wrath, falling to earth to be reabsorbed into the planet’s grotesque clay. Animals, including us, defy the law of entropy that seeks to promote disorganization and the lowest trough of energy possible. As the most anti-entropic matter on earth, Homo sapiens and especially the Homo sapiens brain, electrifies its paltry existence with energy, organization and success but then only fastens immortality by returning to the obedient elements. Thus, the sickly devil’s bargain exchanges opposition to gravity and entropy for immortality, which is only bestowed upon the rocks. The ungodly purpose of organic matter then is to do something that no other substance in the universe is ponying up to… defying the laws set in stone by Newton and others, but only for a cat’s whisker of time. We pay a price for defiance, nor is it crystal clear what it really accomplishes. But there must by necessity be some oblique force in the universe of in organicity that seeks to defy those laws so obediently honored by the immortal inorganic.