Some molecules were stable. . . . These became letters in a new alphabet.
They, too, reacted to form still larger clusters, a few of which survived and accrued. . . . the first genetic words.

Cluster together like stars!

But the term code-script is, of course, too narrow. The chromosome structures are at the same time instrumental in bringing about the development they foreshadow. They are law-code and executive power – or, to use another simile, they are architect’s plan and builder’s craft – in one.

Imagine that the genome is a book.

There are twenty-three chapters, called CHROMOSOMES.
Each chapter contains several thousand stories, called GENES.
Each story is made up of paragraphs, called EXTONS, which are interrupted by advertisements called INTRONS.
Each paragraph is made up of words, called CODONS.
Each word is written in letters called BASES.

I can see the…seams where they’re put together. And, almost, see the apparatus inside them take the words I just said and try to fit the words in here and there, this place and that, and when they find the words don’t have any place ready-made where they’ll fit, the machinery disposes of the words like they weren’t even spoken.

Words belong in contexts, not pegged out like biological specimens.

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.

Words, words, words.

But the term code-script is, of course, too narrow. The chromosome structures are at the same time instrumental in bringing about the

The words we use shape our reality. They are the blueprint for our experiences.

Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.

Look around when you have got your first mushroom or
made your first discovery: they grow in clusters.