I.
Any theory of evolution must explain three types of change: in genotype (caused by random mutation), in environment, in body under pressure from the organism.
While the word ‘relation’ might inspire images of romance—-wind-kissed dandelions, the caress of light on the haunch of a fox—-relation between the three types of change is best understood economically
as genotype and environmental changes exact a ‘price’ that any given body might pay through a reduction of ability. When ability is exhausted or the body’s ‘budget’ becomes depleted, the individual (now falling
from a fiscal cliff, now small enough to fail) dies.
*
These economics do not subtract but divide. After climbing a mountain, demand upon a body’s respiratory capacity requires a climber sit under a tree to rest. She looks
upon the valley;
steeples puncture clouds.
In a clearing, she spots a field.
What might she grow there?
When a poisonous spider lands on her shoulder, she shudders under its caress. But this environmental change is not depleting. She sits motionless, restoring her respiratory capacity, until the spider extends its web
—-like a prayer—-to the nearest hanging branch. You might think the web art, you might decide her rest is dance. Because she can survive these dual demands upon her budget, either haiku or epic could be written upon her descent.
*
But suppose upon reaching the summit our climber confronts a tiger instead. Tiger demand and spider demand are not two equal bills. The price paid by her body in order to run from the tiger will be withdrawn from her already depleted respiratory capacity.
A stone thrown in a pool of water makes a whisper of sound, but I can still hear the echo of many pennies thrown into empty wells.
And what about the fields farmed to fallow? And what about the land over grown with law?
Our climber stumbles. What will she feel first? The prick of tooth or the force of claw?
*
Newtonian energy economics are subtractive but the economics of the body divide like a county fracturing into acreage and lots, plots and subplots such as the one about the spider and her web. (Song, she said,
not fishing but singing) Any theory of evolution contains fish, tiger, bird. Many theories tell the story of the wolf, his striking mercy. Any theory of evolution should consider a feedback loop, a like/unlike category, a summons nailed to a church door. In the space just beyond the tendril of a spider’s web that’s where we look for god.
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