Knock me out!

I've been learning more about genetically modified foods and am horrified by the whole idea.  I don't think any sort of gene manipulation is acceptable.  I really don't.  I'm an old-fashioned kind of girl who believes that preserving things from the past is key to the survival of future generations of plants, trees, and even people. 

I have a friend who used to tell me freaky stories about a coming "Singularity".  If you haven't heard of this abominable (to me) idea of some peoples' belief that morphing our bodies and minds with nanobots and even becoming part or all machine is the future evolution of mankind and a path to "eternal life", then look it up online.  Real crazy science fiction kind of stuff.  An idea that I think no one should toy with, even though I don't fully believe that anything of the kind could ever possibly come to fruition.

I believe in saving heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers for future generations.  Back to basics living is not just a hobby of mine but something I wish to revert to (I say as I type away on my handy laptop while simultaneously discussing on FB the possibilities of social networking with my new iPhone that will be arriving by week's end).  Animal cloning?  Ridiculous! I mean really...why?!!  Maybe someone could explain it to me in very simple language but why is cloning something we should be working the kinks out of?  Just don't mess with Mother Nature!  Then again, I was extremely pleased to find that the American Chestnut will be making a comeback due to scientific advancements involving gene altering.  It's a tragedy that we ever lost this beneficial tree.  Yes, I'm a hypocrite.

I rant and rave about all of these forced and "unnatural" developments.  In the meantime, I glory in the abundance of roses that grow in my front yard.  Red, pink, hot pink, single-petaled, double-petaled, frilly blooms emitting that telltale floral fragrance that grow on thick lustrously green stalks covered in new buds and shiny leaves.  Not a single aphid or taint of black spot mars their foliage.  Even the Japanese Beetles do little damage to them. 

On each end of my little patch of lawn that stretches in front of the picture window of our living room, however, grows a scraggly, scrawny type of climbing rose, barely alive after a scorching summer and pests of every kind that threaten the life of any of the old-fashioned varieties.  Why do some do better than others?  Why do I have ten out of twelve shrubs blooming profusely while the other two just eek there way through life?  Because ten of the twelve are genetically modified Knock Out Rose bushes.  I'm hopelessly devoted to this freak of nature, so "Knock" me out!