My Immortal Lifecycle
I don’t know if I’m immortal. I am so far. But my life cycle does mirror the lifecycle of Turritopsis dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish. Turritopsis dohrnii both reproduce sexually and by budding off into clones of themselves. And they can live forever. The way they manage this is by reverting to polyp stage after maturing. Many things can trigger this reverse-aging. They could be sick or injured or starving and they heal themselves by becoming a child again. Or maybe addiction and mental illness results in their life falling apart and their wife divorcing them. It seems like a good time to move back home and start over.
As humans in our cultural milieu, we don’t want to be moving in the same circle, spinning our wheels. If we are circling, we want to think that we are spiraling upward in our circles, toward some great accomplishment. But my circles are much more jellyfish-like. I am in my third circular life cycle. The first one appeared to be heading somewhere in my 20s with political activism and a higher education that, although it didn’t lead to a career, was followed by a lot of creative collaborative projects. It was during this time that I reproduced sexually, though not through sex. My sister’s partner needed the genetic material to get pregnant. Using me as the sperm donor instead of a stranger meant that my sister’s mother would be the baby’s grandmother. (Feel free to pause here, while you think…
