Grace Period
Holobionts, Symbiosis, And Infections Of Leisure
Dear Ones,
What’s growing on, experimenters? Long-form thinkers. Keepers of clarifying wisdom. Integrating humans. Holy blood moon. Adieu, spinning summer. Year of trilemmas. Hello, fall of alliances.
Living is changing. Death is necrotic. We compost the old to fertilize the new.
Pomegranate season is near. This is one of my favorite times of the year.
I have faith in unknowns. Counterforces of status quo. Blame it on my roots.
What do you fill your pauses with? Do you even have pauses?
Achievement society is obedience society. It is oh so sinister.
There is destruction energy. There is renewal energy. An interesting and terrifying culture emerges through our interactions. With each other. With the natural world. With structures and technology.
It is high time for recalibration of relations. Awareness of kinship.
AI STRUCTURES
Structures are dissolving. New ones are forming. Face it. We need a reboot. Refresh screen. Etch a sketch thoughts. Many humans are unhoused. Many are unhealthed.
AI factory-built houses and microhospitals are on the horizon. The micro hospital idea is very intriguing. Question for builders: will it be without bloated bureaucracy? No death by policies? Can they be green spaces? Modeled after this hospital in Singapore?
Supposedly, Malibu will now be an AI factory-manufactured neighborhood.
It is a growth of sorts. To say the least. Who needs TV for entertainment? Enough is going around.
**NESSA TIP** What are your privileges? What are the things you are genuinely mindful of? These come to the top of my mind daily:
Choice of incoming stimuli (protect what goes into my body at all costs).
Sanctuary of home (dream home)
Present moment living (daily ritual/practice)
Exposure to many kinds of love (a thousand loves)
Awareness of impermanence (hallelujah)
Courage to face uncomfortable things (instead of avoid or deny)
Safety (military war and psychological/ecological/structural war)
Understanding of health rhythms (physical, mental, and social ebbs and flows)
HOLOBIONTS
We suffer from microbe blindness. Is it because they are invisible? So many are scared of unknowns. Meanwhile, I am skeptical of rigid knowns (canonized by a sick few).
A holobiont is an assemblage of a host organism plus associated microorganisms living in or around it. Together, a holobiont forms a functional ecological unit in symbiosis.
Symbiosis means living together or in relation. Note that it is not always beneficial. Symbiosis can mean mutualism, commensalism, or parasitism. Partners in health or partners in sickness.
Lichen is a holobiont. Lichenized means a fungus that forms a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria or green algae. They can harbor diverse yeast and bacteria.
Humans are holobionts too. We contain multitudes and microbiomes: human-gut-skin microbes (aka lovebugs or collections of viruses, fungi, and bacteria). Microbe-human ecosystem health determines mood, weight, immunity, and so much more.
Maintaining healthy human-microbe balance is vital.
DARK LIGHT AGES
Everything has risks and benefits (including drinking water, believe it or not). Intervention decisions can be made on a case-by-case basis. Use critical thinking and empathy with the help of algorithms.
Here is a publication of 2 severe cases I was involved in. Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection due to a bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae. If not treated early with antibiotics, the infection can spread to the joints, eyes, brain, and heart valve. Endocarditis is a serious infection of a human heart valve.
Gonorrhea endocarditis was unheard in the modern days pre-COVID. Largely due to effective public health efforts.
CRYING IN ID (Infectious Disease)
Infectious disease docs used to be detectives. Now, we are detective firefighters.
There has been a lot of confusion around health access and vaccine mandates. It is very alarming and uncertain.
When the system does not place enough focus on prevention of disease, the system collapses from disease.
I specialize in infections and diseases of leisure. A human society without vaccines is usually smaller, sicker, and shorter-lived. Mortality will be higher. Economies much weaker. This is based on lived experiences of the past and present.
Who knows what will happen these days? All outcomes are possible. Predictions are not at all possible.
Let’s embrace uncertainty. Maybe collaborate as a species once and for all.
Footage of nerdy me on a hike:
SCARS OF MY HAPPINESS. September 7, 2025 Plant Dye Series by Mona Lewis at Vita Art Center
SELF REMINDERS:
Get out of the cycle of thoughtstipation. Don’t fill pauses with phones. Go treasure hunting outdoors. Cultivate durable skills. Silence and peace leads to growth of new neurons. Surrender to kindness. Focus on hyperlocalism. Growth feels like loss. Grief is love.
May All Beings Find Peace.
Nessa (born at 333 ppm)
Find humor in everything everywhere
Beautiful, nourishing writing. Curious to hear more on your vaccine take. As a non-medical, non- scientist, I have no expertise, but policy and communication around vaccines has become hard to parse. I’ve lost a lot of trust in public health policy because questions, curiosity, and nuance seem so unwelcome. I can give examples, but for now, just asking if you’d share more.