The Seed & The Sickle

There’s a symbiotic relationship between the organic and industrial. The organic fuels us to make the industrial. The industrial brings us more of the organic.

From the seed, we invent the sickle. And for the seed, we employ the sickle.

But for the industrial to bring us more of the organic, the organic needs to become industrial. We engineer the eggs to be the same size and color. We plant the crops in a row, for easier harvest.

The pendulum swings in one direction, but true progress begins when it returns from whence it came. Sometimes, we decide the price we pay for industry is too high.

We decide we don’t mind so much if the eggs are different sizes and colors. That signals to us that they’re less industrial — more organic.

We like the protection of shoes, but we wear minimalist shoes, so we can employ the intricate musculature of the foot.

We appreciate steady access to food, but we design diets around hunter-gatherer habits.

We like the connection that our smartphones bring us, but we’re careful to prevent them from taking us out of the moment.

We like that deadlines help us move forward and make an impact and feel useful, but we learn to make the space for the organic parts of the process — the flow of focus, the slow emergence of understanding, the delight of discovery, and the satisfaction of shipping.

For the seed, we employ the sickle. But from the sickle, we harvest more seeds.

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