Symbiosis

There are many books you can read to find out how life works— books on relationships, philosophy, and biology. One of the richest books I've ever read on how life works is about ecology. It's called The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem, by Jon R. Luoma. It is about a parcel of land in Oregon called The Andrews Experimental Forest. This is a pristine piece of land that has survived unchanged for thousands of years. It has not been developed by man and is being preserved so that it can be studied by a variety of scientists.

What Mr. Luoma writes about is how every event, good or bad, and every bit of life—from a fungus to an animal—is crucial to the forest's existence. His book is a study of "the delicate balances of the relationships of the natural world." And in this natural world, Luoma describes many instances of symbiosis.

According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, symbiosis is "the living together of two dissimilar organisms, especially when this association is mutually beneficial." Luoma described one instance where scientists were trying to figure out the relationship between a fungus and the cells of a certain type of pine needle in which it lived. The fungi were "stealing" food from the pine needle that would help the fungi photosynthesize, which they couldn't do on their own. But why then didn't the pine needles show signs of damage? It turned out that "In exchange for the energy-rich sugars and starches fed to them by the tree, the fungi return the favor by forming alkaloid compounds, poisons that act against defoliating insects, a sort of chemical warfare conducted on behalf of their hosts... ." In other words, they discouraged insects from eating these particular pine needles.

If the fungi took too many nutrients from the pine needles, they would kill their host. If the pine needle didn't give up some of it's food, the fungi wouldn't be able to save the needles from predatory insects. Together they both survive and thrive.

It's important to understand that human beings, as part of the natural world, also survive and thrive in symbiotic relationships. There are times when we don't live by this concept, when we take more than we give and we end up destroying that which we need most. Or we give everything we've got and end up destroying ourselves. It's the "delicate balance" that we seek, the perfect give-and-take.

Of course, being human, we cannot expect perfection. But we can take time when relationships are not working to think about symbiosis. What is it that you need from this relationship that you are not getting? And what does the other person need that he or she is not getting? If you can answer those questions truthfully, you can live again in harmony.

The world basically and fundamentally is constituted on the basis of harmony. Everything works in cooperation with something else.

—Rev. Preston Bradley,
theologian