Extra credit for bio chem. I was told to contemplate a saying for 20 minutes. This is crap stuff but this is what i had to say after

life

The more I sat and contemplated the saying- “life is a network of coordinated chemical reactions, avoiding equilibrium”, the more I related myself (life) to a simple inorganic thing. In other words, I distanced myself from the traditional view I have of life. I think about my first semesters as a pre-health student attempting to understand the world through my classes here at UVU and through observations. I remember learning about the details of viruses vs. bacteria vs. eukaryotic cells/organisms. What is life really? Where is the line drawn? When I was a child, I would’ve said a virus is a “bug” thus a living thing. Although very virulent, it is not. I now claim along with science that a bacterium is life by the authoritative definition because it can metabolize and blah blah blah. But what really is life? Am I life or am I 100 trillion (or however many cells the human body is composed of) lives? Am I a city? Maybe my heart is its own organism and the rest of my organs as well that live in strict and very coordinated symbiosis with each other. Moreover, maybe the brain is an obligate parasite that uses the rest of the organs to live and then further take over its surroundings. When my thoughts wander, I can explain the statement like this- My “life” is limited, maybe not because my tissue grows old, but because the coordinated reactions that were put into motion when my parents had sex are simply limited. I threw a rock in the parking lot while contemplating and it sparked on the cement then bounced again then bounced off a brick wall into a garden. The rock experienced some reactions; energy was put into it, and eventually lost as it reached equilibrium in the garden. My life :( :( is like that of the rock I threw. But maybe it is not exactly, because I :) :) am a thinking thing. I know that I can do whatever I want with the rest of my life. I also know that the motions that lead to my set of coordinated reactions were put into place long before my parents met. So, like the rock, in my earthly “life”, I will spark and fly and spark some more. I will hang out with other thinking things (my bros aka family and friends) and enjoy our motion together. When cold equilibrium comes, we will greet it delightedly, awaiting the next stage without regrets.