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.

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