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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: Sometimes, it is better to let nature take its course. My comments: “Let nature take its course” is a cliché, something people say again and again. It is a call for people to obey the law of nature rather than change or, to use a better word, manage nature. Yeah, modern day business managers like that word. Manage. It gives them a sense that they’re in control. That’s the thing. People sometimes are so full of themselves that they think they can control or manage anything, even Mother Nature itself. “Let nature take its course” is, therefore, a call for respect of nature against excessive trust in the human effort, including our physical exertions as well as our faith in the powers of technology. People who say “let nature take its course” are not advocating laziness, of course. Instead, they are usually cautioning against human hubris, which sometimes drives them to go against the grain, so to speak. Speaking of grain, let’s hark back to 2,000 years prior and remember the farmer who pulled his wheat saplings up a notch from the ground – in order to, you guessed it, help them grow. This is a classic example of too much trust in the human effort instead of allowing Mother Nature to work its wonder. As most of us are very familiar with the story, this wheat farmer from the State of Song sashayed home after a morning’s field work one day and declared himself exhausted but very satisfied. “I’m very tired, son,” he told his boy. But if anyone cared to take a look, he would continue, they’d see his young weeds were much taller than all those of their neighbor’s. | 
