learning from the plant kingdom

 

Mutualism

mycorrhizal fungi and tree roots,

chloroplasts and plant cells:

at the heart of these two great collaborations

is cooperation, mutualism,

the simultaneous benefitting of each 

from their work as a team,

for years Western science looked at the plant and animal world

through the lens of how a capitalist would view reality:

everything boiled down to competition,

each species, each individual, out for itself,

the savage reality of "red in tooth and claw,"

to deny that competition exists misses part of the truth,

to believe that competition is the only driver

ignores the truth of what we already know,

the truth of much current plant research,

and the truth of Wikipedia,

the truth of forest life has been reduced by people

to producing the most wood in the shortest time:

take what you can, while you can,

the only consequence to consider 

is the current budget,

success measured by this year's profits,

the value of the stock,

the satisfaction of current desires,

a clear-cut world is more of death than life,

an old growth forest is far more rich and complex

than what is implied in this simplistic value system,

an eco-system's "carrying capacity" is ignored, too,

when competition is our real God,

humans can consider limits 

as imaginary lines to be disregarded,

we only matter if we ourselves are ascendant,

mycorrhizal fungi and tree roots argue differently,

that each life-form can benefit 

from mutually-assured cooperation,

for too long we have worshipped selfishness as the prime directive,

capitalism is efficient as to production,

but it needs help in management,

we need to reorient ourselves so that

mutualism,

symbiosis,

cooperation,

community,

drive our ego to be larger than our individuality,

that we enshrine in ourselves 

both selfishness and selflessness,

we need to be as complex and inter-connected 

as an old growth forest,

we need to follow the lead

of the mutualism at the heart

of the kingdom of plants.

by Henry H. Walker

September 25, ‘26

"I suggest accessing Wikipedia is you want to get further in understanding what I mean by micorrhizal fungi and plant roots,

and chlorplasts and plant cells."