Teach death

Dead hare curled up on leaves, a gash in its abdomen.
A dead hare in a copse in North Cape May, yards from the bay.

Homeostasis is a big concept, reduced to a few meaningless words in biology class.

Shelf fungus on a dying tree trunk

If you want to be cognizant of how things work, focus on how they fail.

Death is rarely pretty (however lovely the swirls of pathogens on a Petri dish look). I have seen many people die, have felt the heat of life slip away as a corpse, moments before a body, no longer fights the inevitable heat death of the universe.

Horseshoe crab spine

Biology in high school can be immensely boring. Death less so. Especially one’s own.

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