I’ve been thinking a lot about stromatolites.

For most of the time in which this planet has sustained life, organisms have been neither complex or inclined to survive as a species. Whenever life has developed its been routinely wiped out, only to have its building blocks of organic matter try again. And again. And again. This cycle of failure has continued for a very long time, with success a relatively recent phenomenon.

Four billion years ago, something changed. Some microbes mutated and found a way to stay glued to their divided selves, eventually building layer upon layer a sheath of microbes that lined the ocean floor. These little “colonial” organisms, we call stromatolites. Four billion years ago, there wasn’t much oxygen on our planet. Without oxygen, there was no ozone. With no ozone, there was no protection from UV rays. With unfiltered UV rays cooking the planet, there wasn’t much chance of life development. Yet as the stromatolites got bigger, the outer layers of their union were able to block UV rays while the inner microbes were protected. Thus, complex life developed on this planet.

Lately, everywhere I turn I recognize the lessons of stromatolites. In a world of rugged, single celled individualists who burn bright then fail with no legacy greater than their own passions, I am now more than ever convinced of the need for cooperation if we are to thrive as individuals and survive as a species. Whether I watch presidential candidates attack one another, witness a partisan and mistrustful congress flounder when trying to solve major problems, see good friends dissolve relationships over petty egocentricities, watch the Human Rights Campaign cut loose transgendered people over ENDA, or lament the nonsense of business colleagues as they maintain patriarchal systems of governance and resist innovation, the lesson is clear: If we don’t work together for our mutual benefit, we all lose.

It’s breathtaking that such a basic principle so fundamental to our success as life forms, whether it be interpersonal, political, economic, or even basic survival, was present right at the start of our organic complexity. Yet, in all these realms of human experience, most of us ignore this lesson every day in favor of a twisted social darwinism that separates us. The results are always predictable, often embarrassing, and as they pertain to survival, deadly.

The early colonies of stromatolites are considered the oldest known fossils on the planet, and most have receded deep into the earth, where I would guess we’re probably now pumping to bring them back to the surface in the form of oil. Currently, there aren’t many stromatolite colonies left on the surface, but I still put my money on them outlasting the human race, being that the lessons they have to teach us don’t end at cooperation. Unsurprising, stromatolites are also photosynthetic. In other words, they are energy efficient. Four billion years ago, when other nascent organisms were competitively feasting on each other, the stromatolites were harvesting their energy from the sun. This is a feat that humans still haven’t mastered, and probably why stromatolites will be on this planet long after we are gone and unable to cut deeper wounds into the earth in order to find and convert the stromatolite’s compacted form into fuel.

Granted, the cycle of life, even as it pertains to stromatolites, is cruel and subject to laws. Those microbes which formed the outer layer of protection against eons of UV rays were sacrificed for the good of the colonial organism. This recognition of sacrifice, injustice, and reality brings with it many hard questions about who and what we are as life forms, what we must accept, and what we capable of overcoming. Regardless of the questions, whether they be of meaning, purpose, survival, or transcendence, we can probably find their answers if we begin our search four billion years ago, under the sea. At least that’s where I’m starting.

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