A Tour of the Issue Introducing A Question of Direction Patterns in the natural world can illustrate patterns in human affairs. The following can shed light on critical issues of our times. Fire wood splits, revealing the swirling grain around a branch. Within the swirls are little spots that, when a branch dies and lets daylight through, can become animated, swell into buds and grow a new branch. On another level, all around the forest floor, seedlings stand ready to fill in when old trees fall, opening the sky.
Old trees do fall making way for new.
When they do, their remains decompose and soak into the soil providing nourishment for those that come after. The cycle is endless thanks to organisms of decay. We often malign fungus, bacteria, mold and others. Nutrient substance would be absorbed by living things, but nothing would be released when they died. Before long, all available nutrients on the planet would be incorporated in perfectly preserved corpses, leaving the Earth as a desolate monument to a system that could not work.