"You know the rummy thing about life Jeeves?"
"No Sir"
"Its that just when life is going along smoothly and everything is as good as... whatever, somethings
always got to come along and give it to you in the neck... still, there it is."
P.G. Wodehouse
Life Forms 101: Life, will give it to you in the neck.
Sometimes when life gives it to me in the neck, I laugh, and sometimes I even feel like crying.
But I rarely do cry, why? I am not really sure. Reaction, is one of the rules of the world.
So do you ever find yourself in the middle of a "life in the neck" situation, and discover that
that is when you really feel the life inside you, weather it is being squeezed out or let out?
Like sand being shifted, it takes something moving you to realize you are here.
I just got done reading a book. I know, exciting? You feel the life inside you now surging
forward longing to know, what was the book? It was actually a book about this, sort of, except
it was better written and much more exciting to read. So why are you reading this? The name of
the book is Manalive by G.K. Chesterton. If there is something that I was not at the beginning of last
year that I am at the genesis of this year, it is a G.K. Chesterton fan. He will take your high and
mighty view of human reason and face plant it in the mud. Sort of gives it to you in the neck.
The odd thing is, it is rather enjoyable. Now I have not done extensive excavations into his work,
but the two great books I dug up last year have really made me see the world different, in a good way.
The next life form, is biologic life forms. Well, all life forms are biologic, that is what bios
means. I simply mean that this form we are talking about is not the kind that gives it to you in
the neck, but the one that allows you to have a neck.
I have recently been taking a class and conducting an experiment at a local college with some fellow
homeschoolers (homeschoolers rock). We are attempting to successfully sequence a plant gene.
I think everyone should have a pretty good idea of what a gene is. The gene we are trying to find in
our plants is the one that starts the process for making energy. Like a match being struck and
starting a fire, this gene strikes a match called glycolysis, that starts making energy in the cell by
way of the mitochondria.
And that is the one sentence description of a book of the experiment. This experience so far
has opened my eyes even more to the complexity of life. And I am reminded how much control I
actually command over my own existence, because I can tell you now that replicating cells is not
something that shows up on my everyday list of things to do. Life is insane. It is cool.
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Acts 17:28
Chip
P.S. I have also been reading Sherlock Holmes. Good stuff.
