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Life In The Middle

The Symbiotic Relationships We Have And Becoming United Through Compatibility

Several years ago I was worried about the moss that was growing on an oak tree in our yard.

I took a sample of the moss to our local nursery, and was told not to worry about the moss. The nurseryman told me that the relationship between the moss and the tree was a benign symbiotic one. Basically neither species was being harmed by the other. Based upon this information, I left the moss on the tree, and noted that they did exist one with the other without any outward damage.

Recently I met a couple who made me think about symbiotic relationships. These two were the parents of one of the babies I took care of in the intensive care unit where I work. They each had their own careers, their own friends, and their own interests. They had married because it was beneficial to each of them. Kind of like the moss and the oak tree. They weren’t doing any harm to one another. They liked what they had together, but they had not united to make a single unit. They were together, but separate.

The encounter with the couple made me go back and read up on symbiosis, and symbiotic relationships. I realized that our relationships, one with another are symbiotic in nature. Symbiotic relationship usually fall in to three categories. There are mutualistic, commensal, and parasitic relationships.

Our family and a few of the close relationships we have are mutualistic relationships. We benefit individually from our association with one another. We work together, we help each other, and we are concerned and are connected one to another.

Most of our other interactions are similar to commensal symbiosis. The rules of interaction teach us to allow others to live their lives, and they will do the same for us. We work within a company and in return it pays us for doing the best job we can. In return the company gains a good reputation and grows. We tolerate the grouchy old man next door, as long as he pays his taxes, and doesn’t infringe upon what we are doing. In a commensal relationship neither individual nor group is hurt.

A parasitic symbiotic relationship is entirely different, because it is destructive in nature. It is not benign. It overpowers its host. We have all seen examples of a parasitic symbiotic relationship. An example of this on a grand scale would be dictatorship that supports terrorist action against another nation or people. On a smaller scale it is organized crime, or the criminal who sees what you have and breaks into your home to take it. At a more personal level it is the bully on the playground, or the controlling “Friend” who is ready to hurt another. A parent who tears down their child, or a husband or wife who abuse their mate verbally, physically or mentally.

I wondered when I met that couple if there was something in nature that was the opposite of what they were displaying. I wondered if there was something that represented the loving couples I have encountered over the years. I am talking about the ones where they function as a unit. They each are on guard for the other half of their partnership. If something happens to one of them, they know that instead of facing a battle alone, their partner will always be with them. I didn’t have far to look before nature showed me an example of what I saw in loving couples.

Nature has given a unique example of the truly united marital partnership. Remember that mutualistic symbiosis functions on a higher level than commensal symbiosis. There are a few symbiotic mutualistic relationships that have evolved into a state of perfect union. When algae and fungi form a symbiotic bond, they interconnect and inner twine so well with one another that together they become something entirely different. Together they become known as likchens.

Likchens represent the perfect union between organisms. United together, functioning together, studied and labeled in nature as one. They are the super example of mutualistic symbiosis that combine and literally create an organism that is so inner connected they are one. It is only through intense study that scientists have been able to recognize the separate characteristics that have created the likchens through their symbiotic relationship.

We exist in a world filled with symbiotic relationships. When I encountered the couple with the baby I recognized that unlike the likchens, they had not inner woven one with the other. They were together for the benefits that they gained from the relationship. But if things didn’t work out, they would move on to another relationship. Nature allows many symbiotic relationships to support the system, but there are only a few that become truly one.

What I realized was that we have the ability to form our relationships based upon thoughts and feelings. If we unite ourselves with someone else, and inter twine our lives with that individual; we might find ourselves not two separate individuals like the moss and the oak tree I talked about, but truly one like the likchens. Which do you want to be? Just something to think about. Until later... Colleen

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Copyright 2010 Leland Pulley