The signals say: A good answer is worth reinventing from scratch, again and again. They say: The air is a mix we must keep making. They say: There is as much below ground as above. They tell her: do not hope or despair or predict or be caught surprised. Never capitulate, but divide, multiply, transform, conjoin, do and endure as you have all the long day of life. There are seeds that need fire. Seeds that need freezing. Seeds that need to be swallowed, etched in digestive acid and expelled as waste. Seeds that must be smashed open before they’ll germinate. A thing can travel everywhere, just by holding still.
richard powers, the overstory