[Graybeard]

This is just a small story ... its value to the 'Toe' is infintismal.

I moved apartments recently. I'm now in the centre of the city (Brisbane) ... i look down on traffic flowing like rivers, and skyscrapers have replaced mountains. I have a very large balcony that gets late morning and early afternoon sun.

I decided to grow my own salad vegetables. Amongst the parsly, mint, lettuce, chilli, I planted two small cherry tomato plants (the fruit matures arund half the size of a golfball and requires no pestcides). The cherry tomatoes came from a different environment. From Gatton, far to the west and high on the Darling Downs, a prime agricultural region. Each was an 25mm high (inch). They cost two dollars each at a roadside stall.

They soon showed that they were two entirely different plants. Within two weeks one had grown to a metre tall and was covered in flower bunches.. each flower would be a tomato. The smaller, the runt, was about half a metre but had grown two complete bunches of cherries, still green.

Within a month the smaller had produced two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cherries that were all turning red and would obviously all ripen at once. The larger was obviously going to produce much more fruit than this, but it was going about it very slowly. It was now 4 times the size of the runt.

To cut it short, the runt fulfilled its promise and died. The larger was still going and producing 2-3 cherries a day. In my wisdom, I saved some seeds from the runt and replanted. The big one I uprooted and threw away, it was drinking too much water and was all show, whereas the runt was all go.

For quite a while I was very proud of my newly developed agricultural expertise, and the way I was playing God and Lord-over-all on the Balcony. I was making correct decisions, such as any farmer would and maximising my crops with limited water supply. And believe me, in Brisbane we have a serious water supply problem. Level 3 restrictions,no parks are watered, no fountains flow, garden hoses are banned, etc, and soon to go to restriction level five.

As things stand, the runt is the only tomato DNA pool left on the balcony.

A doubt has crept into my mind and is shaking my omnipotence as Lord-over-all on the balcony.

This is the doubt... I thought I had made all the decisions ...in my WISDOM. But had I made the decision, or had the runt made the decision I had decided who would live and who would die. I was in control of the Gene pool and was manipulating it to maximise the crop. . The runt's descendents currently rule the gene pool and they expect and demand water from me every day.

Think about, did it seduce me by its early and complete delivery of the goods, by its promising red blush on its fruit while the giant was still in the flowering stage.

Was it the quickest and the best to adapt to its new and different environment, therby ensuring its DNA survival. Any human who wanted tomatoes would have done what I did.

Am I still the Lord of the balcony, or did I just play a small servile part. Was I ever Lord, or was that only in my mind ???

Have I ever been master of any decision relating to anything.

Each day my conviction lessens ... but the salads taste great !

Please feel free to make any comment.

greg .. Former Lord of the Balcony.