The Struggle is Real

The mighty oak leaf struggles desperately to defy the wind but is torn asunder by the wind's power; but the reed bends and the wind passes through. -- Confucius (孔丘), [intentionally misquoted]. 

Leaf eating soil organisms wait all year to feast on dead oak leaves, trying to survive against their grass eating enemies until an annual Fall feast.  The struggle is life and death.  And not just the soil bacteria, but all life in the universe struggles against the laws of thermodynamics and the inevitable increase in entropy.

Our back yard oak tree (Tree-Beard) provides cool shade all summer;  he supports a tire swing my youngest daughter mounted to his might boughs.  He  breathes in CO2 and converts the Carbon to leaves and living wood.  Every year in the Fall (right now) he poops a few tons of leaves in a 4 square km surface that suffocates grass, hides dog poop, and bother our neighbors.  Every year we spend a few hours of hard labor every week picking up Tree-beard's droppings and then paying an evil monopoly too much money to sell these leaves at a hefty cost. Yes: we work and sweat to collect and deliver the goods they sell; they don't pay us; we pay them!

Some of our neighbors hire trained professionals instead of toiling in their own fields but we choose to do the work ourselves to keep our yard green and clean in our struggle to stay fit.

The struggle is real.