Plants and other thoughts

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? My mother-in-law showed us a picture of a parade in the nineties. It was her and the kid version of my spouse. And it was taken with one of those old cameras that burned the date into the picture.

[00:00:33] The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I was at that specific parade too as a six-year-old kid, and it was just a funny moment to think that I might have been in the same place at the same time as the person I would go on to marry a couple decades later. What a small world inside this big world.

[00:01:01] I think creativity is a little bit like that. You do a bunch of random things that spark your interest, learn a bunch of seemingly unconnected stuff, and sometimes some of that stuff comes together in the funniest way, and you get something new or different out of it.

[00:01:24] Have you ever watched a leaf turn towards the sun? You might have readjusted a plant or repositioned it, and suddenly the positioning of the leaves is no longer optimized for catching the most light? Then over the course of the next few days, all the leaves slightly adjust or sometimes dramatically adjust.

[00:01:50] So that they're catching the most light they can from the place they find themselves in now, they optimize and do their best with what's been dealt to them. I have a pothos plant that I adore, and a part of it hangs above a vent. When the furnace is running, there's air blasting up through that vent and hitting a section of that vine.

[00:02:18] And over the course of about a month or so when I first put it there, I realized that just that part of the vine had become extraordinarily thick and strong and sturdy. It still swayed when the forced air hit it, but the sway was gentler because it was strong there. The continuous resistance had forced the vine to adapt just that one section of itself.

[00:02:45] To protect itself. But the side effect of that happening was that a few of the leaves were finally able to do something a little bit weird, almost make a weird little loop around the vine to be able to catch the sun better because this part of the vine actually didn't get a lot of light.

[00:03:09] And it was something they hadn't been able to do before because the vine swayed so much that they probably couldn't pinpoint where the best light was. Obviously, I'm attaching a bit more consciousness to this plant than it really has, but you know what I mean. If you're a plant owner, you've seen these things happen with your long standing plants, and it's a slow dance, but a fun one to watch unfold over a long period of time.

[00:03:38] If you know where I'm going, then you know better than me because I don't entirely know where I'm going with this today, except that I'm feeling a touch of sadness, that The daily 5 is ending. It's a good decision, but that doesn't make it not sad. Maybe I'm a little nervous for what should come next.

[00:03:59] Because I won't be able to say, "Hey, at least I've done this podcast every day no matter what." And use that as an excuse to procrastinate on other things, maybe. I'm not sure. It's not nearly as dramatic a change as I might be making it sound, but in its own little way, it's a change. And now there's a bit of an element of unknown that I've willingly introduced into my life.

[00:04:23] Not to mention all the other unknowns that constantly happen in your life that you have zero control over. Hmm. Anyway, that is the haphazardness running through my mind today. So that is what I've got for you.

[00:04:45] Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.