1pg essays: Hyperaccumulating
Admittedly, prior to this essay, I wasn't even aware of the terms "phytomining", "hyperaccumulator", or "metallophyte"—though their existence is fascinating. Metallophytes are essentially plants capable of growing where metals are extremely rich, where they gather the metals into their leaves and foliage, where they can then be collected or process from the plant itself. While a fascinating process in itself, hyperaccumulators (known for being exceptionally good at this trait) are seemingly able to take in noteworthy toxic metals such as Arsenic, Cobalt, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury, and even Thallium up to 1000x other metallophytes.
But this isn't a wikipedia article.
What is the process to bring something good from something bad? Some will say recycling, but most materials people think can be recycled (plastic bags and other thin plastics) can't. Even what is recycled is ultimately made back into itself. It's not pulling something apart for the good bits: that's salvaging. It's not pulling something from the dredges into something usable: it's something a bit more than that.
Phytomining might just be that.
But I'd like to turn the eyes on it perhaps inwards with this: no one is a purely good person. No one is a purely bad one either. There is clearly a process in nature to draw out the good parts in the much into something usable, something you can work with. Ways to bring all the good parts to the front.
I think it starts with focus. The whole part of metallophytes is that they seemingly target the trace, specific, metals in the soil to bring them to the flower. The flower knows what its looking for to pull up and out of the muck, and so we must do the same with our mind. The mind is a whirlpool in a swamp, with ideas constantly shifting and moving and getting stuck over new thoughts and new ideas.
Knowing what to look for, making it a priority, and finding ways to showcase it (bring it to the front) has always been a tried and true method for focus, but to find the process in plants is practically proof in example. If you struggling with feeling like a good person: focus on your good traits and make them a feature. Make them a major facet of your personality. Even if you are an awful person (or believe you are) bringing say, your love of justice to the front might be enough to convince people you're a good one. And perhaps, if you do that enough, you become one through your acts and deeds. Accumulate goodness enough should be more than enough to eventually be saturated with it.
That goes to show however, that the opposite is true: there is a manner to bring the darkness in someone out into the forefront. This is how many darker ideologies work. They find the one piece of darkness that I think everyone has, and brings it to the forefront. Insecurities of romantic/sexual level? With a few tugs that becomes incel ideology. Insecurities with your masculinity? Go to manosphere podcasts and learn how to 'maximize your time on the grind.' Finding difficulties making friends? Obviously it's the woke left's fault for dividing everyone and you need to stay unified.
The difference here is that rather than you finding yourself in the muck, you've allowed someone to choose and pull what they want out of you instead. You've been phytomined and cultivated, but whereas the point of phytomining is to pull toxins out of the ground to clean and purify the soil, you've allowed yourself to create more toxins instead. Therapy works similarly, but rather than bring out bad traits to spread, it brings out the bad traits to work through them—to fix and purify them.
The traits we decide to focus on and bring out are much like the metals pulled out through these flowers. They sit at the forefront, glittering on the petals. I believe we have much more choice in what we make part of ourselves than we believe, and that there are countless versions of us, varied entirely by what we care about. You can choose to bring out good traits or bad, you can choose the kind of flower you are.