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and makes the best bread.

And because no relationship

exists in one direction alone,

now the grass expects us. It

adapts. It learns to follow

irrigation schedules instead

of rain patterns. It lets down

some of its defenses because

our pesticides are swifter at

the kill. It becomes luscious,

fat, and sugar-rich, thanks to

the way we pamper the soil.

The instructions these species

pass along change accordingly.

And then we, in turn, reward

those that change to our liking

by selecting them for survival

and protecting them from

competitors. They feed us, we

nurture them. Or we kill them.

Or both.

For good, for ill, or for neither.

Am I talking too much?

If you are, I don’t care.

There is no standard scientific

definition of life. There have

been many proposed, the Primer

tells us. We still have yet to

agree on one. But the single trait

of life that cannot be argued