How do flowers know when to bloom?

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." ~ Gérard de Nerval.

Have you thought about it? How do flowers know when to bloom; or a female child when to flower? Or for that matter, how does anything happen in the normal order of things, that is not triggered by volition: an exercise of the will. In human affairs, most mundane acts are directed by the faculty of the will towards the attainment of a chosen end; or at least we like to think so, even when mostly it is not so. It could be an act of awareness, or an unconscious subconscious action.

Yet, there are innumerable happenings that are the result of neither choice nor chance. An illustration would be the coming of age of a female child. All who know will know that it will happen; but when exactly and how, is an open question. There arises also the question, why at that moment in time; not earlier, not later? The same could be, said of death and many other human affairs.

At least, insofar as the will is concerned, we can say that it is a property of the mind similar to reason and understanding. Yet, when things happen beyond the capacity of these faculties, how do we explain them.

Of course, we could call it gods will, destiny, fate, and many more other names; but none answers the question: how and why did it happen, when it happened.

At least we know that when flower petals break through to blossom; whether penetrating the snow with an early hint of spring's arrival; or as with the flame of the forest in May and June to cover the landscape in glorious hues of crimson, orange, and golden yellow; or whenever willed by nature; it is doing so, not without reason. Flowers know when to bloom because it hides a very complex genetic process behind its floral façade.

A lone master gene, Apetala-1 triggers the reproductive development of a plant, telling it when it is time to start blossoming. Yes, a single gene is all it takes to make a plant start producing flowers. Is this the case with every living thing in the universe?

A question worthy of ponder, even if answers are not easy in coming. We know that Murphy's Law states that, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"; or to put it better, anything that can possibly go wrong, does.

Yet, do we know when and why it is likely to go wrong? No, is the simple answer. Actually, though many wrongly believe that Murphy's Law is a law of Thermodynamics - the study of Energy - it is not so. It is only an adage, an epigram. Thermodynamics has only three laws; and that is not the subject of this endeavour.

Common

It is an experience common to all humans to find that, on any special occasion, the possibility of errors, mistakes, happening is ever-present: everything that can go wrong, will in all likelihood, go wrong. Whether we must attribute this to the malignity of matter, or to the total depravity of inanimate things; whether the exciting cause is hurry, worry, or what not; the fact remains. The only thing we are certain of is that it is not, caused by our will - a willed action done with full awareness of what one is doing. Will, in philosophy, refers to a property of the mind, and an attribute of acts intentionally committed, especially after giving thought. Hence, actions made according to a person's will are called "willing" or "voluntary" and sometimes pejoratively "wilful" or "at will". In general, "will" does not refer to one particular or most preferred desire but rather to the general capacity to have such desires and act decisively based on them, according to whatever criteria the willing agent applies.

The will is in turn important within philosophy because a person's will is one of the most distinct parts of their mind, along with reason and understanding. Will is one of the things that make a person who they are. Will is especially important in ethics because will is what determines whether people act deliberately; at least when they do act. However, it is sad to note that most people do not deliberate before they act - think, then act. In other words, they do not use the will in determining their actions; but just follow the herd, as goats do.

At least we have better knowledge and detailed insights into the genetic processes underlying the onset of flower development.

I did say that flowers know when to bloom because of a gene named Apetala-1. Researchers at the Plant Developmental Genetics laboratory at Trinity College Dublin have recently discovered that Apetala-1 generates the proteins that in turn switch on more than 1,000 genes involved in the flowering process; and thus decides which genes need to be, turned on and off so that flowers can form.

Factors

Plants blossom at different times because several of factors, including the weather, temperature, and the amount of sunlight the plant receives, all of which influence its reproductive development. Information about these conditions is relayed to, Apetala-1 which activates when it senses that the timing is right to commence flowering.

This is an exciting step forward for our understanding of how flowering plants enter into the reproductive phase. Are humans, at least most, still in the same stage of development as flowers: which is to say, we act because of feelings brought forth from our surroundings rather than the result of volition.

The Buddha said "chetana hang bhikkave kammang vadami": Volition, I declare O Monks, is Kamma. If this is true, and since we are aware that most humans do not act out of will; does it mean that most humans are still living at the stage of development of plants and animals? I, for one am forced to think so, considering all aspects of their behaviour.

From the beginning of human evolution, human custom and traditions determines what is fine and ugly, just and unjust, ethical and unethical.

Many traditional societies such as we have in Sri Lanka are, focused on community-centred values that require the promotion and sustenance of a common life of relationships, in contrast to the morality of individual rights. Whereas the morality of utilitarianism is most prominent within modern Western moral philosophy, it is not necessarily so in Eastern philosophy or thought. However, East or West, the fact is, humans lead a life, mostly devoid of thought.

The questions I have raised are not for me to answer, but to induce people to think.

This column wishes to be the catalyst to stimulate thought, and not the answer to all human doubts.

At least, through such effort - even if answers are not forthcoming, for they will not be easy in coming - I hope that some will find a way out of the plant and animal kingdom in which they lead their current lives.

By entering the human plane of existence through the application of thought, they may become creatures of the mind that humans are capable of being.

The primary question of Ethics ought to be, "How shall I live?" Should I be a human who lives by will or one of emotion; because how we live will determine, our status and our eventual fate in the hierarchy of, human development: be it mind or man.

Since humans began recording their thoughts a few thousand years ago, many great minds have advocated the value of thought: the act or process of using the mind actively and meditatively.

However, in today's world, in the information society of present times, nobody makes the effort to think.

We expect to banish paper from our daily life, and it would be good for the environment if we did; but what we have achieved instead is, we have actually banished thought. How sad.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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