There are many intersections in the ways of ongoing flux, places of steady but impermanent homeostasis.
These are called things.
Thing (Old English): an assembly, a gathering
Thingan (Old English): to invite, to address
Althing (Icelandic): the parliament
An object is a thing that has been removed from its party line of rhizomes, hyphae, and roots, and treated to public scrutiny – framed, analyzed, experimented upon, known.
An object is a thing under surveillance.
We mourn the lost thing, even as we pursue the inescapable human work of objectification.
Homo faber tristis.