Life Finds A Way

Something I find so remarkable about life is that there are so many hindrances people have to over one in life, and we regularly do overcome them. We can see this in animals, and in humans.

A cat can be born without front paws, and it will learn how to move around on its hind legs. A person born without arms will learn how to get around without them, too. And whatever other problems we have, be they allergies, chronic disease, or mental illness, we deal with it and we move on.

To quote a line from Jurassic Park, "life finds a way." But to quote John Green, you find a "new normal". And I think these two thoughts make for an interesting lens. It really seems that we are designed to survive, which is why I love organic life. But part of that survival is not feeling like we are trying that hard.

Whatever we do is normal. Our own lives are so normal that we don't even take the time to think about it. For a man to explain what being a man is like, you can't even do it without knowing what being anything else is like. It's as odd as being asked what having skin or red blood cells is like.

The same is said for a person born without arms. They may be able to explain what they can't do, or what is difficult to them, but they don't feel like they're missing arms. They just are what they are.

When you examine a character and put their thoughts into text, realize that they don't know any other way to live. They have no idea what any other way to be is. They may feel different or like an outsider, but they are still themselves.