Why our smallest companions deserve both caution and admiration
Harsh Sandilya (He/Him) // Contributor
Jasmin Linton (she/her) // Illustrator
Cameron Skorulski (he/him) // Production Manager
Dear Microbes,
I admit that I am afraid of you. You have shut down cities and nations. You have broken down massive healthcare systems. I know our relationship is not straightforward, but we survive on mutual benefits. Millions of you live and thrive in my body, especially in my guts where I get those butterflies as you break down those macromolecules, including lactose and others for me to get nutrients and ATPs.
Sometimes, I think you are like the superior individual they refer to as god in many religious philosophies; and similar to that you are also everywhere, from the deepest sea beds, tallest mountain peaks, driest deserts to the darkest caves and, still, you are invisible to the naked eye. . . Though you have made a significant contribution in the evolution of life on Earth, you have endangered the human population from time to time. But, look at us now. We are also fighters. We have overcome tragedies created by you. I know we have had this love-hate relationship for so long and I predict it will be continuous, where you threaten us with some new variant of yours; on the other hand, you turn milk into cheese, grapes into wine, flour into bread and those grains into beer. You are the secret chef in our kitchen. You recycle death into soil, stitch nitrogen into roots and even fill the atmosphere with oxygen.
You may have many admirers, yet, there are many who fear for their life from some of your crazy variants. Like any other powerful lover, you can wound as easily as you can heal. Maybe fear is just another name of respect. To fear you is to recognize your strength and to work hard in scientific development to contain your ruthlessness.
So, I write to you not just in fear but in love, you tiny, tireless eternal thing. You remind us that life is not only ruled by what we see but also what we don’t see. It’s true that now we have to live together on this planet and we have to face each other, so I believe fear alone cannot be the way ahead. Hence, I would like to end this one-sided conversation by quoting the poem ‘Fear’ by Khalil Gibran.
“The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean”
I hope we keep crossing our paths in good faith, and I would be terrified to hear back from you.
With love and fear,
Harsh