Mother Nature: Woman of the Year?

Yeah, Noddy, I'm familiar with the notion that the Earth itself might be, in some meaningful sense, a living organism. But I strongly doubt that that's what the Time editors or anyone on this forum really have in mind when they speak metaphorically of 'Mother Nature.'

Merry Andrew--

I like the Gaia notion myself, but you're right that Mother Nature in her folksy glory is the being under consideration for Man/Woman of the Year.

I'm kind of intrigued by that notion also, Noddy. But you realize, of course, that if we take it seriously, then mankind becomes nothing more than a parasytic infestation with which Ma Gaea is trying to deal. In this view, then, the natural disasters which befall us are nothing more than Mother Nature holding her dominion, sort of like you or I using anti-bacterial shampoo to get rid of head-lice.

Merry Andrew--

Head lice? I'd rather think that some members of the human race resemble cancer cells--and some don't.