Monday, July 17, 2017

Orange

Everytime I eat an orange, I get fascinated by its amazing design. To start with, there is the skin. It is porous, hydrophobic, squishy, and sticks to the fruit with a mesh of fibers. The inside has spherically arranged packets holding liquid and covered with a thin fibrous layer. If we open a packet, we find small spheroid bulbs filled with beautifully colored liquid and covered with a delicate layer. Orange grows symmetrically out from a small bud, becoming enlarged as it adds cells in a defined structure, it is not assembled piece by piece like the way we manufacture items. And, if left alone, it seamlessly mixes into the ground. An amazing beauty, an intricate balance, a piece of art, and zero pollution. It is produced by a small plant not more than 6-7 feet in height, 3 feet in diameter. No raw materials to be shipped in, no workers doing 3 shifts - just an un-disturbing existence. Humans are in the stone-age of manufacturing. We lack the intellect to design. We are struggling.