Is adaptability good? Maybe. I think it is in terms of adapting to change, adjusting your approach as things demonstrate volatility. Perhaps it is a large portion of success. Your ability to adapt in a given circumstance. Lets take a look at species in the world. It seems like the species that have demonstrated the most adaptability have survived. I talked about Koala bears that have learned to overcome the difficult digestion of Eucalyptus leaves by passing that enzyme from mother to child orally. How did they figure that out!? Why did they even need to do that? Eons ago, getting stranded on an island where this was their only food source? Being chased into trees by predators and had to survive somehow?
Adaptability, as it seems, is our strong suit as humans. However, I don’t know about you, but I would rather not be the one that dies testing a new theory. We seem to learn very quickly and adapt quickly. My theory is that is that is because of our ability to store language. Stories, myths passed on have a way of informing us what is good and what to avoid. Leaves of three, let them be!
We are agile creatures, ever changing, ever testing and prodding our environments. Seems like change and adaptability is our natural state. The sedentary steady state of modern life is what is causing us all our problems. That is why we seem to thrive on chaos. This is why people have to take over city blocks during an epidemic crisis, we just cannot handle a lifestyle that is for the most part non-threatening. We relish the hunt, the chase, the brink of destruction, the eye blink of our mortal existence.
However, I also wonder if this adaptability is also what makes us fail. Perhaps we should be more rigid in our values, beliefs and our rules? Perhaps this is why we focus so much on creating structure around ourselves, because inwardly humans know their own natures. We are constantly seeking chaos, which is why we need to carefully establish our boundaries. It is self preservation at its finest.
I am thinking of Marlin, who by the way was the hero in Finding Nemo. His son was a reckless idiot, but people always remember Nemo. They forget all about Marlin, yet the entire show was really about him. I remember him darting in and out of the anemone they called home. Testing it out first, then back in. Testing it out again, then back in, Testing it out a third time…little longer…then back in. Is that not what we do? Is that not what we are doing now. Went to the store….did not get Covid. Went out to dinner, with a mask, did not get Covid. Now, I am just driving all over the place, mask in my pocket, just happy as can be. However, the threat is still there, right?
Humans are predictable in this manner. So I wonder, is our adaptability, unchecked a good thing? There perhaps is a balance that we are hopelessly in search of but most likely will never find. That is the curse of being born into a species that is so free wheelin and able to accept change.
Guy Reams
