from a ive, and clearly it  forus to do ot couldn’t  to get going, but ttengoing, it seemed in very little o move on.

    Consider t about t visible organisms on Eartamong t ambitious. t ticularly ts ops and arctic es,  rock and rain and cold, and almostno competition. In areas of Antarctica  expanses of licypes of tedly to every wind-whipped rock.

    For a long time, people couldn’t understand . Because lic evident nouris or tion of seeds, many people—educatedpeople—believed tones caugs. “Spontaneously,inorganic stone becomes living plant!” rejoiced one observer, a Dr. homschuch, in 1819.

    Closer inspection s liceresting ta partnerse acids t dissolve t t into food sufficient to sustain bot is not avery exciting arrangement, but it is a conspicuously successful one. ty thousand species of lichens.

    Like most t ts, lic may take alicury to attain t button. tes, es David Attenborougo be t ence. “t,” Attenborougestifying to t t life even at its simplest leveloccurs, apparently, just for its own sake.”

    It is easy to overlook t t life just is. As o feel t lifemust . e ions and desires. e  to take constantadvantage of all toxicating existence  o alic its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours—arguably even stronger.

    If I old t I o spend decades being a furry groually all living t, for a moment’s additional existence. Life, in s, justs to be. But—and eresting point—for t part it doesn’t  to bemuch.

    ttle odd because life y o