biotic and abiotic

November 26^th, 2022

 

How are we so different from machines? Machines are programmed to work and we are doing this ‘voluntarily’.

 

Trail Of Thoughts - 22

Today in economics class, there was a topic about biotic and abiotic components of the ecology. And the definition kind of surprised me. All living things are called biotic, but are all biotic things actually living? I remember when I was younger, the definition we had was more like “things that can breath, feel and grow” are biotic.  “Feel and grow”, I’m coming back to this.

 

In Telugu there are two words, jeevinchadam and brathakadam. They are both similar to the words in English, living and existing respectively.

 

People exist in this modern world but none of them are actually living in it. Living seems to be a dream and a wish for most of us. To be able to live our lives is a luxury while it should be a necessity.

 

There are a number of reasons for this to happen and the main reason that pops up in my head is poverty.

The next part I thought of seems too political to say. So I’ll just skip to the part where everyone is happy reading and everyone is bashing the follow button. (btw the steps to follow: click on the three lines  on top left and click on the blue button with word “FOLLOW” written.)

 

Ok back to biotic and abiotic. “Feel and grow”.

Yes we are all growing for that is inevitable. Time passes, the earth rotates and revolves, and we physically grow. To feel is an abstract concept. It’s a broad psychological one rather than one of the 5 senses of humans. To feel is to experience the emotions, our surroundings, and lives. To experience life is to live life.

If you’ve been reading from the beginning of my journey in blogging, you will notice that living>existing is one of my main philosophies. And that was thanks to a bunch of friends.

 

To me, living is to feel, grow and being aware that you’re feeling and growing. Being aware of what is happening and actually wanting to do it is what living is. As for me, right now, the phase I’m in, I’m not living for 15 hours a day, and the remaining is when I actually live. I just exist for more than half of my every day. Thanks to college, I’m just existing and will be doing so for the next 5 years of my life after which, I can truly “live and enjoy” my life.

 

Everyone has different ideologies on the concept of life. Like, in biology-Anything which shows characteristics of life is called living. It is a vast concept. According to it, even a newborn baby is living and microorganisms incapable of feeling are living. Any other oxford type definitions have a shallow depth in the meaning. But in the poetic-philosophical way, it is way different.

 

In the poetic sense, living is loving. Living is blooming; living is feeling. It’s not a state of being; it’s a state of feeling. Living has a much broader meaning than just “not dead”. It’s much more than just existing.  And of course, it is different from person to person. In my view, living is to be happy, sad, angry etc., feeling the many emotions one can think of. The irony.

 

So, what is your definition of living?

How do you respond to the question “how’s life”?

 

In the end, existing or living, we are all very much alive.