Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Strawberries and the Human Genome

Caveat: Just a tongue-in-cheek blog entry. Don't take it too seriously.


In its article, Evolution is Not an Obvious or Intuitive Concept Big Think writes we humans are related to the strawberry. Yes, we are both soil-bound, but the relationship stops there. True, man didn’t create the strawberry or the soil or even himself. But like the stronger creatures such as the alligator, he devours and destroys or mars those below him on the food chain, even the soil and the air. Yet, this is the law of nature in our universe, which is a violent and cruel one.

Not that what the article is writing is false, but I resent the insistence on the fact-whether it is a fact or not-that I’m somewhat related to a strawberry or the making too much of the buildup of all life forms. If I am that much related to a strawberry, what is keeping me from devouring my human cousins?

In addition, in conflict with its title, the article excerpts from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself to glorify poetic thinking, as if to show proof. In his poetic figures of speech, I bet Whitman meant something different, as Whitman was pointing to feelings, and not to the chromosome twists. Plus, why bring Whitman into this?

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I understand that the concept of the self is fluid and it encompasses all nature, but then, we are a separate species, aren’t we? Even if we might have descended from other life forms...

Then the article goes to validate its train of reasoning by bringing in the human genome project, which is out to unlock the life code we carry in ourselves. Although I am not denying all the wonderful work and the value of the excellent research, I feel shortchanged somehow. The whole argument in the article points to some form of self-denial or at least some partial self denial. I am not insisting on the religions’ claim that man is the highest life form, but I prefer to be special. I think mankind is a special life form that can think, feel, and arrive to conclusions, at least some of the time. And it has its major differences from a strawberry.

Still, since I have carped so much, I forgive those who think I am a cousin to the strawberry, if for nothing but to free myself from the self-defeating energy of resentment, and because I mentioned the strawberry idea this much, I think I’ll go have a few strawberries with cream…ahem!…, which are NOT my cousins.