Short-term vs. long-term gain (2/17/2021)

This past week we had an impeachment trial of the inciting chief also known as the ex-president. There were a lot of GOP senators (and house members before them) who acquitted him. Not necessarily because he was not guilty for inciting a riot or worse an insurrection, but because of some bizarre technicality. At least that is the way they saw it. It seems that this might be for their short-term gain, avoiding pissing off the weirdo, very vocal tRump supporters, the Q-anon, proud boys, neo-Nazis, oath-keepers, and alike. However, will it help them, their party, or the country in the long run? I doubt it. Yes, the seven senators that voted to convict are getting crap at home, and so is Liz Cheney, but they had character, they called it out the way it was. These folks that voted to acquit will always be known, branded, for what they did, as spineless, characterless cowards who threw away the constitution and became complicit to a murder, invertebrate republicans. They threw away potential long-term gain for some short-term political gain. Will it be worth it? We’ll see!

I stole this one from a friend's post on Facebook.  I have no idea where she got it.  If it is copy righted let me know and I will give credit for it for sue, but this really shows what I mean.

And here I promised I would try to stay away from politics in the new year. Wow that did not last very long, did it? “Short-term vs. long-term gain.” It applies to daily life; in all decision, we make. What triggered that thought? It was partially the decision by the GOP senators, but I was reminded for a large part by a bonsai video blog (vlog) that I follow. All these events brought me back to my teaching, my motivation, and my graduate studies, which all have to do with long-term gain and where I am right now. Not that it always worked out, but I am in a good place.

I have been watching a vlog by Nigel Saunders called “the Bonsai Zone.” Nigel does clip and growth bonsai, meaning he hardly ever wires his trees. He has two famous sayings: “Here I go,” and “It does not look like much right now, but in ten or fifteen years from now it will look great.” Nigel looks long-term ; everything he does is for long-term gain. I figure that Nigel may be my age, or at most maybe 10 or so years younger. But he is definitely no spring chicken, he is retired, and his optimism and outlook for the future has no boundaries. I love his enthusiasm, his sometimes-non-conformity, and pure fun he has in all thing’s life. I see that a lot with Bonsai guys. Peter Chan from Herons Bonsai in England who is in his 80s is the same. It must have to do something with trees or plants. It sustains these professionals and gives them a long-term vision, a will to live, to plan for a future, far away.

I nurse some tropical trees right next to my teleworking station.  Note the grow light that I have above my trees.  I ordered it after Nigel got the same one from a fan and unpacked it on his show and liked it.  He still has it behind him on almost every video he shoots this season.  In addition I think it helps me with my seasonal affected disorder (if I have that). 

During my classroom teaching and in particular when I teach my “Plants for Erosion and Sediment Control and Stormwater Professionals” class, I tell folks why I am a plant biologist instead of an animal or other type of biologist. One of the major reasons, I explain, is that if we animals do not like what nature throws at us, we can go inside, or in case of (real?) animals we can crawl under a rock, migrate, hibernate, you name it. Conversely, a plant just must stand there and take it all in, have a strategy to survive or die.

I graduated with a specialty in plant physiological ecology. This study explains why and how a plant reacts and deals with its environment. I particularly liked what was called stress physiology. I guess that this is probably why I like growing bonsai so much; you are stressing your plants somewhat, to develop a miniature version of the real tree.

I tell my students and I know that I have mentioned it once or twice here in my blog, biologists would make great economist. During my bachelor’s studies, my highest grades were in economics. Why is that you may ask. As Darwin put it, the natural world is all about “Survival of the fittest” or as I like to call it parsimony, or how to do things the most efficient. How do you achieve that? Mostly by thinking ahead, long range. If you do not, someone is going to outcompete you and you will be evolutionary history. Surprise, surprise, plants, in particular, are really good at this. Us animals, and yes, I count humans as animals, are more opportunistic and more reactionary. They can shoot from the hip, be more impulsive and think more short term.

Both behaviors have their advantage. Slow and steady has worked really well in the plant kingdom. Some plants are still here since the beginning of evolutionary time, many are not. I actually work with a few in my collection, like the dawn redwood and the gingko biloba. Animals have evolved. Maybe except for roaches and horseshoe crabs there are not many species that we know of who have outlived evolutionary time.

This all may change with climate change. We know that animals can move with the shifting climates, while many plants cannot and either must adapt, evolve, or simply die (become extinct). Many researchers are speculating about what will happen to ecosystems that are on the margins. For us stress physiologists it is an exciting time. It is a shame that I choose a different path in my career some 30 years ago, and am out of the loop. But so be it. My choice was short-term (financial) gain over the long-term intellectual. As I mentioned we all come to forks in the road of life and at times we must choose, not knowing whether deciding for short-term gain is better than choosing a path that may deliver long-term gain but is difficult to envision at the time. I choose mine, and I’m OK with it. I wonder if those politicians will be.