We seem to be able to easily
accept the idea 
that in an organisation
like a company
a board of directors or similar
sets the culture of the whole—
that the ‘idea‘ they hold guides
all the parts—guides the rest.

Yet in nature we seem to want to get to ever-smaller 
increments as means by which we seek
to understand what really drives the whole—
cells, molecules, microbes, atoms, nuclei.

This, in a company, would be akin
to finding the smallest item on a balance sheet—
finding the smallest asset
such as a paperclip
and saying that this is what really determines
the behaviour of the company
as a whole.

It is the idea that guides the company—
that guides any social organisation.
Likewise, it is the idea that guides
the natural organisation.

It is the idea that guides the meta story,
the story, the poem, 
not the words and letters.

That the whole is more than the sum of the parts
is true enough, but it is the ‘whole’ that 
determines the direction of the organism
through coming into being in each of the parts.

And so we come to the whole—
to the idea—
via the parts.

The idea in the words and letters,
in the animal organism,
in the landscape organism,
in the social organism,
in the human organism.

Why stand on our heads 
when we can walk on our feet?