A Vine in the Wind

Evolution can surprise you sometimes.

As I looked out my window at my neighbors yard, I saw a vine, outstretched into nothingness.

So clear it was that it was not growing toward another anchor point.

And then, a gust - the vine's leaves, like sails, carried it up and around and the vine waved like an arm outstretched grasping for sustenance.

So clear it was that it could hook onto something nearby without even knowing it was there, or planning for any specific thing to be in any specific place or orientation.

Here was an arm grasping with no muscle, no sight, just environmental randomness doing the organism's work for it.

They say you need to be open to new opportunity to truly grow, and I think that's true.

Maybe you also need to be movable to a place or perspective of opportunity, a second order effect.

Maybe you need to be a vine in the wind.