Oxidation

I am watching the red maple outside my bay windows. It has gone from summer's deep burgundy to flaming crimson-orange as the leaves drop in wind and Autumn rain. The cycle of trees is comforting to me. I sometimes envy their Winter sleep, followed by Spring's vibrant awakening. 

Trees grow and age differently from human beings. They live and die in annual cycles. We strive for year-long homeostasis. Their bodies accumulate annual rings and grow larger. Our bodies progress from year to year along a bell curve which climbs from relatively rapid growth to a plateau of maturity to a decline of shrinkage. Both trees and human beings eventually die.

The neighbor across the way heats his home in part with a wood stove. He oxidizes dead tree parts for warmth. This is an accelerated form of returning what was once a living being to its elements. Cremation of human remains is the same process. However, we humans expend a great deal of heat to do it. Our bodies would slowly oxidize to their elements if left alone in Nature. Tibetan Buddhists utilize the digestive systems of vultures on mountainsides (see video below) to oxidize the remains of dead monks more efficiently. It certainly works for the vultures.

We spend too little time looking at the cycles of life. If we spent more time doing this, we would gain greater respect for our planet and its workings. It is a marvelous system of chemistry and physics. It recycles on its own when human beings don't screw the process up. But that's what we do...screw things up for profit or power in the name of making them better.