Scientists often spoke about how long
it would take the Earth to destroy everything man made if he were to
sudden vanish. Most presumed this was simply a thought experiment.
Quite the contrary, it was a warning. The Earth, they said, actively,
consciously sought to destroy mankind. Vines, the conjectured, did
not seek out cracks in walls because it was convenient. Instead, it
deliberately sought cracks to further destroy walls and buildings.
Root systems do not attempt to penetrate leaky pipes because they
desire its water but because they know the pipes are ours.
Early man knew this. It is why he first
domesticated plants, to show them who was boss. It is why he eats so
many fruits and grains, to hurt plants' ability to reproduce. Our
first campfires were not for warmth or cooking. They were warnings.
“Forests,” they said, “we defy the trees you drop on us and
your thorns that cut us. We hack them up and burn their bodies! We
carve their corpses and make homes of their bones!”
The historical record is inconsistent
as to who started this quiet war, but it will no doubt continue for
as long as man and plant exist in the same space.
- Originally mailed to J. Hall of Jackson, Mississippi
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