Our minds and bodies are absolutely bewildering.  Sometimes they do things on ‘auto-pilot’ without a conscious effort, as Malcolm Gladwell  describes in his book “Blink”, while at other times change in our thought and actions require cultivation and culture. Both maneuvers have one goal: adaptation for survival and domination.

While contemplating the topic of adaptation, I finished reading “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith. In the opening and concluding chapters, Smith uses an allegory of a tree that is able to grow in the toughest urban conditions of Brooklyn. Despite being chopped down, it is able to sprout and re-grow out of its concrete surrounded stump.  Just like the tree, her characters are able to survive some of the darkest seeds within people – alcoholism, neglect, bigamy, selfishness, and corruption. But it is through having light, hope, and a sense of direction and purpose for life that we are able to survive. And not only survive, but thrive.

After reading Smith’s book, I realized that my pursuit to have a stabilized and ‘figured out’ life was like chasing clouds. One minute everything is beautiful and formed, and the next everything evanescence.  Just when we think we’re living the high life and our branches can reach up to the sky, some low-life can easily chop us down to a stump. But just like the Tree in Brooklyn, we have to keep fighting and searching for the light. We may need a winter vacation to go dormant and recoup our wits, but eventually we can reemerge realizing that life isn’t about us, but something higher.

But how do people pragmatically succeed, especially when there are looming axes and social violence, as Dr. Paul Farmer argues?

My Aunt M. provided a piece of advice: no matter how bad and irreparable a situation may seem, it can always be fixed. Don’t dwell on the mistake, but push forward to figure out the best possible solution. And my Dad’s food for thought – “never be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes even a ‘big girl’ needs help” (after I lost my customs papers and had to jump through some hoops at the Cancun airport to get back to the USA). So, learn, be optimistic, and don’t think you have to do everything on your own.

I recently started a new job as a waitress at Stone Street Tavern in the financial district. This historic cobble-stone side street is lined with restaurants and bars making it the perfect retreat for many Wall Street people. However, working in this place can be quite stressful. Thankfully the pay and humorous coworkers make the head and heart-aches worth it.

Before our shift began one morning, my co-worker and I were making light of the hardships of working here by discussing how we have ‘bodily’ adapted.  Walter Cannon’s “Fight-or-Flight Response” definitely rings true for us – we get stomachaches, tense up, and have to ‘get rid of everything’ before each shift begins. I have not had this sort of reaction since running cross-country in college. I remember eating breakfast in the morning and taking three excrements before race time. My body just knew it had to get rid of extra weight for the 5k stretch (or 5 hour shift) ahead to flee!

On a more civilized note, one of my favorite definitions of culture was coined by anthropologist Leslie White in the early 20^th century: ‘an extra-somatic means of adaptation to environment’. In English, that translates to adapting to your surroundings by utilizing “stuff” as opposed to your body naturally acclimating to its surroundings. In my new work environment, my co-workers and I have learned to share tricks with each other to be more efficient and customer service orientated.

However, sometimes adaptation is slow and we need a vacation to recharge our batteries. A couple weeks ago, ten of my family members went down to my Aunt and Uncles house in Puerta Aventuras, Mexico. Casa Mediterranean is located right on the ocean, surrounded by a golf course and a marina complete with shops, restaurants, and a dolphin discovery. The dive shop, Aquanauts, is also there and over the years my family and I have explored almost all of the ocean dive spots in the area and many of the cenote (cave) dive sites.

Carlos, our favorite dive master, said something that fascinated me. Lion Fish, native to the Pacific Ocean, are now swimming amuck in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean – in fact all the way from Venezuela to Maine.  Rumor has it that a bunch of these fish escaped from a guy’s breading tank in the Atlantic after a storm in the 1990’s. Since these venomous fish lay 40,000 eggs every 4 days and have no natural predators in the Atlantic, they have adapted to their new environment quite successfully. To mitigate the effects, divers can now earn $20 for each lion fish captured. [Need a summer job? Just come down to Mexico and capture lion fish!]

Adaptation is timeless and all around us whether we are in an urban, work, safe, family, or rural environment. Instead of striving for equilibrium and ‘normalcy’, focus should be on our life’s purpose, rolling with the punches, and continuing to learn and grow. That’s what makes life so rich and worth living.

Written by: Kelsey Grubbs

Tags: a tree grows in brooklyn, adaptation, airport, anthropologist, aquanauts, atlantic, bar, betty smith, blink, body, book, breakfast, cancun, caribbean, casa mediterranean, cenote cave, chapters, culture, dive, dive master, dolphins, dr. paul farmer, english, fight or flight, financial district, golf course, historic, leslie white, life, lion fish, maine, malcolm gladwell, mexico, minds, mistakes, normalcy, ocean, pacific ocean, puerta aventuras, restaurant, rich, shops, stone street tavern, stress, survival, usa, venezuela, waitress, wall street, walter cannon

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 8:56 am and is filed under Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.