Scientists in preparation for the Mars exploration designed and created the Biodome, a sanctuary in which life may thrive without the need of external input of resources. It is essentially a closed ecosystem. The concept of this bio-dome was groundbreaking and was thought of as the milestone before realizing space pioneering.
What scientists did not expect was the paradox of it all. As the years passed experimenting within the bio-dome, as the trees and plants grew, everything seemed outstanding.
But with time: as the saplings grew large, they eventually collapsed in on themselves, dying without apparent cause. Each tree’s bark would crack under the weight of its own crown, and would come crashing down, scattering wooden splinters in all directions. This happened to not one, but all of the arboreals.
It was later realized because the bio-dome was a closed system — a habitat enclosed in a gigantic dome of glass—that there was no wind. All wind was repelled by the sturdy, transparent shell.
But…what is so important about wind?
Wind is the force that causes trees to sway; it is what causes them to shiver. It shapes many trees; some become crooked and grow diagonally, but some remain tall and straight. What wind does is precisely this: wind blows to topple trees, and in order to adapt and survive, tree fibers that face these winds grow strong and robust.
Wind provides for trees hardship.
Through the never-ending barrage of gusts, trees grow powerful in order to withstand these gales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for many decades to come.
In the bio-domes, there was no wind, there was no hardship in which the trees had to adapt to in order to survive. And thus when they grew, they grew recklessly, sealing their own fates. They collapsed, splintered, and were left for dead.
The trees exemplify the coming generation’s youth. The bio-dome their protective parents, shielding them from incoming challenge and hardship. The youthful tree-lings faced no bitterness and no defeat, and reaped the short-sighted benefit of it all. They grew ambitiously to great heights, but like the highs and lows of the summers and winters, like the crests and troughs of the waves: what goes up, must come down. They fell back down to earth.
And so, the lesson here lies: do not shield our youth, our future kings and queens, from falling. Let them fall, but see that they get back up and continue running. All our lives, each of us will fall over, and over. With each fall though, our saltine tears cease. Our once-broken skin hardens and staunches the blood.
To produce a truly strong generation Kings and Queens, they must face adversity head on. Let them face it in their youth, so that they may not fall like the trees sealed shut, in the glass-enclaved bio-dome.
