My wife and I like to garden as do so many others. We find the process of gardening rewarding in many ways – not only for the harvest at the end of the season, but also in the investment of work it requires. Turning the soil, weeding, watering, and tending are all part of the experience that brings to us a kind of pleasure – a satisfaction for an accomplishment with purpose. Lately, I’ve considered it more than a process for growing food. It is teaching me and has caused me to ask an important question: Why does a seed grow?

I have a reasonable grasp of the biological functions as a seed germinates and grows which serves to answer the ‘How’, but does not address the ‘Why’. This question applies not only to our little garden, but to all life, including the life of the gardener. Consideration of this question leads quickly to another which has been asked for millennia: What is life?

Reference sources try to answer this question, but only succeed in characterizing life and fail to define what it is or as importantly, why it is. Many of us know it when we see it – existence with a purpose which is not solely an assemblage of biological processes.

Things get more complicated and interesting when we consider these questions for ourselves with our highly developed layers of consciousness that enables us to create art, culture, technology, and yes, gardens. This added feature of consciousness is a powerful aspect of our species that can impact all others for good or ill. Yet, it is precisely that capacity that empowers us to ask questions and seek answers.

I’m not sure that I will ever be able to explain why a seed grows or define what life is, but I do know what it feels like to live. Someone once defined life as a song. That is a definition I can live with. Even those of us who can’t carry a tune in a bucket can hum a few bars.

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Kevin Deeny