Time Out … a Pause to Reflect
When nutrients are placed in a tissue culture dish, cells express growth behavior by moving to the stimulus and are open to assimilate the nutrition. In contrast, when toxins are placed in the culture dish, the cells engage in a protection response by moving away from the stimulus and closing themselves down to ward off the environmental threat. Growth behavior: Move to the stimulus and be “open.” Protection behavior: Move away from the stimulus and be “closed.” The insight offered by these cells is that organisms cannot move “to” and “away” from a stimulus, nor can they be “open” and “closed,” at the same time. The profound conclusion is that organisms can switch between either growth or protection, but they cannot engage in both behaviors simultaneously.
What position do you think an individual’s “survival” switch would be in response to each of the following two news bulletins: 1) “The annual flu season is back and as normal, there are certain populations whose lives are more threatened.” 2) “The COVID-19 virus is coming and millions may die.” In previous years, you may not have been overly concerned about the report offered in version 1. However, today’s corona flu pandemic, fraught with massive potential deaths, has almost the entire global civilization engaging in a protection response, hiding from one another and “locked down” in isolation.