"Does it?" he asked, glancing to Cole. His head listed to the side for a moment before he nodded. "Yes, I suppose it does." Digging the shovel into the pile of dirt, he threw another measure into the grave. "Life is a series of cycles," he said, slipping comfortably into a sort of academic posture. "And the unspoken goal of all things, living organisms and the non-living environment, is to attain a balanced steady-state."
A few rocks pinged on the portrait, causing Archer to pause in his lecture before throwing another shovelful in after them. "Sometimes the system will over-compensate and pass the point of flux. Sometimes it will be under-supplied and fail to reach it. But to retain function, it will always waver about that point." He glanced over at Cole. "If this applies to our bodies and the natural world, why should it not apply to our personal lives?"