My mom sent me this picture the other day with the tag line: “Life finds a way.”

Taken from the movie Jurassic Park, this simple 4 word statement speaks volumes. For those who don’t remember the scene, here it is…

“… the kind of control you’re attempting is, it’s not possible. If there’s one thing the history of evolution’s taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, well there it is… I’m simply saying that life finds a way.”

What We Can Learn From Weeds
We can’t control nature, it is too resourceful, too smart. Whether we like it or not or think its even possible, life, in all its versions, persists. In every way of the world from bacteria to sharks, flowers to dinosaurs and mushrooms to humans, life finds a way.

Now put this fictional movie quote/scenario in the context of modern life and science. In a very similar way, humans are now trying to exert the same control and manipulation over life. We think we can simply control things by will, force and implementation. When we want to control something, we reduce it down to its parts then change it, fix it, inhibit it or take some component of it out. Life is not that simple, it is not reductionist. It is everywhere, all encompassing and perpetual.

Particularly when it comes to health, humans almost act ignorant to this concept. Don’t like cholesterol? We just deny people that. Blood sugar too high? Give it the science treatment, knock it down. Just like trying to deny life to the dinosaurs on the island of Jurassic Park, there is a force much more powerful than we can even fathom. Many people know of the law of unintended consequences. This is no different. Try to control the body and it will find a way to get around it. Deny the body something, try to control part of its “life”, and it will find a way.

I’m not anti technology, science or medical development- I just want us to make smart decisions about what we do in the pursuit of controlling, fixing or denying nature, our bodies in particular. We must always remember that regardless of how smart we think we are or how much we think we have figured out or can manipulate or control we can’t fail to realize that life, in all its masterful glory, always finds a way…

Thanks for reading, have a great day!