mcsweeney

Newton and Darwin Play Flashlight Tag At Dusk

Newton's third law of social dynamics states,
for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

We all have choices.
With each action the possibilities spread out like a quantum web,
a safety net waiting to catch us and to let us fall simultaneously.

It's the law.

Inalienably, we are all accorded equality and opposition.

I keep making bad choices.
I know which choices I should be making.
I know how these choices will affect me.
I know Newton's m.o.

I keep making bad choices.
Unable to modify my behaviors based on the
long term implications and outcomes.
Motivated by base needs.
Like an animal.

I keep telling myself.
We all have choices.
And we are all accountable for our mutations
and our selections,
as natural or unnatural as they may seem.

As he spoke of hereditary improvements with his
survival of the fittest mentality
Darwin legislates that these choices,
and we all have choices,
must have some benefit.

Each generation must be stronger than the last.
The stronger traits are perpetuated while weakness dies out.
Like those last sick buffalo at the tail end of the herd
who are taken by predators because they were
born with less cartilage in their joints.

It's the law, after all.

By simple Darwinian turn, my choices
become meaningful.
my sedentary sleep deprivation,
my intimate distances,
my closed mouth and open ears,
my compulsions to ask and to answer,
my little rebellions,
my reliance on ideals,
my inherent pessimism,
my dreams as unrooted as they may be
become meaningful.