11/06/2005 - Propagating the Virus

Viruses propagate their type by binding to the surface of the nucleolus and manipulating the original genetic material of the host cell. The virus inserts the genetic coding required for the transcription and duplication of itself, and so the cell in turn creates more of the virus.

This semi-symbiotic relationship may have one of two outcomes.

In the first, either the cell does not have the energy reserve required to propagate the virus and apoptosis occurs, or the random point at which the virus inserted its genetic code into the nucleus causes an unfavorable mutation that disrupts the cell's normal functioning capacities. Until the proper immune response to this anomaly is intitiated and the infected cells are destroyed, sickness and death of the organism are viable outcomes.

In the second, the insertion of the virus's genetic material into the cell produces a favorable mutation which benefits both the virus and the organism. For example, the mitochondria of the cell, the energy producing organelle which is essential for life as it exists in it's relatively macrocosmic proportions, has it's own genetic material which is DIFFERENT from our own. It's generalized anatomy is very similar to that of a virus, suggesting that perhaps at some point mitochondria was an independently existent free-form virus.

I was just thinking about how my relationships and friendships have a tendency to last a very long time and end badly, but that the quality of those relationships and friendships is such that they are life-altering and often life improving trials, tribulations and lessons.

We enter each other's lives like viruses, constantly changing the people around us, constantly ourselves becoming other people... and honestly, if we are lucky, we are forever changed and forever improved upon.

I know you're thinking viruses are a gross and evil thing to illustrate something so profound and close to our hearts as human relationship dynamics...

... but if you think of it another way... the virus is an unparalleled master of survival, an accelerator of evolution, and an instigator of change.

In other words, looking at it as a threat and trying to destroy it will only pave the way for stronger, more resilient viruses. Look at it another way, and it's a perfect metaphor for why life, in all it's color, rancor, love and war, is so mind-blowingly beautiful.