Thursday, November 8, 2007.

One day there was this plant, which somehow made its way to a plant tissue culture lab. That plant was far from ordinary, having being fed countless milligrams of plant growth hormones (auxins and cytokinins e.g.), and what was so special about it was that it felt extremely energetic and powerful, and wanted to grow, grow and grow.

Then a scientist came and looked at it. He thought it would do well in a Magenta jar, and carefully placed it in there. It realised it could NOT grow! It was limited by all the (C2H4)n fibers all around it, and it struggled to push and grow. And as it spent its life in that small Magenta jar, it complained and whined about its inability to grow, with the uncaring and ignorant chains of high-density polyethylene staring at it, not making way for it to grow. He felt as if he was being controlled by the polyethylene chains, and was angry with all the chains not giving way. Yet it seeked to push against the flow of polyethylene chains, and tried its best to grow although the odds were stacked against it.

But grow it did. One day the scientist left a hole in the cover by accident, and the plant smiled at this golden opportunity to grow like it never did before. So the plant delighted in growing, stimulated by the hormones. It grew, and grew, and grew, till it emerged out of the magenta jars.

The scientist realised his mistake and tried to stop the plant from growing any more, by squeezing it into a smaller Magenta jar. It worked. But not for long. Another hole emerged (the scientist's doing) and then the oversized plant grew and grew out.

But this round, it would not have a nice punishment.

A metallic sound. A crunch of metals.
BANG!

In its dying moments, the plant realised that it would always be limited by its surroundings.

(the OTHER) Moral of the story: Never go cycling at East Coast Park on a weekend or public holiday. You will get owned by all the noobs who take up the wrong side of the road.

Labels: Life