t h e S E R E N G E T I

life

^The SERENGETI

There's a radio commercial that features two Zebras that are come upon by a hungry lion. As one of the Zebras takes off running the other one says, "We can't out run a lion." The one with the head start replies, "I don't have to out run the lion, I just have to out run you...."
We have so tamed our Serengeti to the point that we don't even recognize the lion when he's on the front porch. We pipe the watering hole into our homes and have worked out an elaborate bartering scheme that we have bathed in mystery and cloaked under the term economy. (see To Catch A Rabbit) We don't see the similarities in the African Serengeti and the urban wastelands that surround us in places like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Anyone who has ever witnessed the carnage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange should recognize that the trader who embarks on a mission to drive a stock, your stock towards new depths is tearing at your warm belly meat, just as sure as the lion rips into the flesh of the zebra. Unfortunately you may not acknowledge the fatal blow until one day when you're in your 70's, trying to live on social security, while eating dog food,
On the Serengeti , a Zebra that has grown weak and slow will bring up the rear of the herd, and is destined to become lion kibble. There is no safety net to offer the poor Zebra, that will allow him to survive yet another Lion attack. No grants, no programs, no food vouchers, school vouchers, or reductions in his capital gains tax. Only the strongest and fastest (and perhaps luckiest) Zebras are allowed to stir their serum into the gene pool, and only a swift lion with powerful jaws will spill his seed into the next generation of hunters. In our concrete jungle, our compassion allows us to drag the slower zebras among us onward into the new millenium. So, rather than filtering out the less powerful strains of humankind we continue to make random, collated copies. The question is, genetically speaking, is DNA subject to the same laws of physics that govern Xerox machines and the geometric fading rendered by copies of copies, of copies...