“…nature strives for adequacy, not perfection.”
Catch me, if you can
Life is to be lived, rather than perfected. I’ve spent a good deal of my life not trying to do certain things — take certain risks — because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do them perfectly. But nature strives for adequacy, not perfection. Take a cheetah. It’s evolved to be just fast enough to catch a Thomson’s gazelle, some of the time. If it were too fast, the cheetah might catch too many gazelles, and then the population of gazelles may crash, and then the cheetah would starve.
So natural selection, the prime engine of evolution at the macro level, makes sure that animals are just good enough to make it. A cheetah doesn’t sit there and think: I’ll never be able to catch that gazelle. If it did, there wouldn’t be any cheetahs. And the tommie doesn’t think: Cheetahs are faster than I am. I’ll never be able to outrun it. Or there wouldn’t be any more gazelles.
All we need to do is good enough. All we need to be is good enough. Nature takes care of the rest.
© 2024 by Michael C. Just
Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.
You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23
Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002
Five of his short stories have recently been published online:
Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)
The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW
I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October
Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within
You Get the Two has been published by Hellbound Books and is available in print, ebook, Kindle or audio format at https://a.co/hVI8QbZ