Potentiality

From the tiniest particle to the vastness of the Universe, everything in existence has potential.

Polarize an inert atom and it attracts or repels others to combine into something more than what it was. What the combination creates is something new, something based on the potentiality of the first polarized atom. It them continues to attract and repel so that it becomes many forms along its growth path. Potential is almost infinite; it can become anything. It can become alive. It is life. The beauty of it all is that, even if the final life form dies, it is never completely dead - that original polarized atom is still going strong, still attracting and repelling, still creating.

The potential is almost infinite; and therefore is almost random. It is the nature of the mundane, and perhaps the basis of natural law that governs the mundane.

"For every action, there is an equal, opposite reaction."

This is the natural law that makes absolute the freedom of choice and will. Jump ahead, if you will, to the Earth and all the life forms that together, create a necessary co-existence. It is a closed system in that everything depends on everything to be. It is life; it is alive.

Let's say one branch of this tree of life decides to grow beyond the ability of the trunk to support it, the whole tree lists to one side, the trunk and the roots strain, effecting the ability of the tree to route nutrients to all parts. Sooner or later, the tree has no choice but to allow that overzealous branch to rest on the ground where it begins to rot and break off, releasing the weight pulling the whole tree out of the balance that nature intended. The disintegrating branch then becomes nutrients that feeds the tree, helping it to regain balance and strength and vigor.

The Earth is that tree; humanity is that overzealous branch. The Earth can bend and give only so much before it has no choice but to give in to preserve the whole that is life.