{"id":214,"date":"2025-11-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/?p=214"},"modified":"2025-11-27T16:46:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T16:46:05","slug":"de-extinction-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/de-extinction-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"De-Extinction Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-19d8f16\" data-block-id=\"19d8f16\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">My daughter traveled back from the future to save a dandelion. She dug it out gently and transplanted it in a jar of dirt. She tried to explain to me xeriscaping, biospheres. I was happy that she loved something so much, even if I didn\u2019t understand it myself.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-947995c\" data-block-id=\"947995c\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">\u201cThe virus makes the petals bioluminescent,\u201d she told me. \u201cIt\u2019ll blow you away. But it\u2019ll destroy the species.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-ef4e95f\" data-block-id=\"ef4e95f\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">\u201cWho would\u2019ve thought,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat\u2019s your life like? Who\u2019s your father?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-6d1726d\" data-block-id=\"6d1726d\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">\u201cNot important. When the dandelions glow, can you take a lot of pictures for me?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-e9bd07d\" data-block-id=\"e9bd07d\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">She wanted to meet her grandmother, too. She made the request carefully, but even that was enough for me to guess what she was trying to avoid telling me. Mom was already forty when she had me. I tried not to do the math.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-203e2f9\" data-block-id=\"203e2f9\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">Mom asked if it was possible to stop the virus in the first place. No, Daughter said, we still don\u2019t know where it actually came from. Dandelions used to get everywhere, you know. By the way, how\u2019d the coronavirus go? How\u2019d you survive, being immunocompromised and all?<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-c7c0abc\" data-block-id=\"c7c0abc\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\">I told her it was luck, mostly. Our roots were set in a good place. Caring, considerate. People protected me without ever meeting me. I didn\u2019t tell her that I thought I wouldn\u2019t last three weeks. I didn\u2019t tell her that the pandemic was the first time I felt like the perpetual foreigner the academic papers talk about. The rest of the country tried to forget what they\u2019d done; I couldn\u2019t.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-divider stk-block-divider stk-block stk-628319e\" data-block-id=\"628319e\"><style>.stk-628319e hr.stk-block-divider__hr{background:var(--theme-palette-color-1, #FF4242) !important;}.stk-628319e {margin-top:var(--stk--preset--spacing--superbspacing-small, clamp(20px, 4vw, 40px)) !important;margin-bottom:var(--stk--preset--spacing--superbspacing-small, clamp(20px, 4vw, 40px)) !important;}<\/style><hr class=\"stk-block-divider__hr\"\/><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-stackable-text stk-block-text stk-block stk-f287b2c\" data-block-id=\"f287b2c\"><p class=\"stk-block-text__text\"><strong>A.S. Kresnak<\/strong> (xe\/xir) went to grad school to study health communication. Xe still believes the world listens. Xir website is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/askresnak.carrd.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">askresnak.carrd.co<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My daughter traveled back from the future to save a dandelion. She dug it out gently and transplanted it in a jar of dirt. She tried to explain to me xeriscaping, biospheres. I was happy that she loved something so much, even if I didn\u2019t understand it myself. \u201cThe virus makes the petals bioluminescent,\u201d she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-run-one","category-story"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ivylit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}