What is alive?

 I think everything is alive.  I don't parse it.  It makes things a lot easier to understand.

I was told that viruses do not have a brain, are not considered alive and I wondered if theirs was a sort of collective brain, working as a sort of spooky action as a distance in a cloud.  Or maybe there's an airborne myecelium..or! haha! they dip into the collective consciousness?  

I found this article asking the question if viruses are alive.  Since I think rocks are alive, I think ions are a sign of life, this quote peaked my attention:

A rock is not alive. A metabolically active sack, devoid of genetic material and the potential for propagation, is also not alive. A bacterium, though, is alive. Although it is a single cell, it can generate energy and the molecules needed to sustain itself, and it can reproduce. But what about a seed? A seed might not be considered alive. Yet it has a potential for life, and it may be destroyed. In this regard, viruses resemble seeds more than they do live cells. They have a certain potential, which can be snuffed out, but they do not attain the more autonomous state of life.

The seed example made me think of the seeds of men and eggs of women.  I think everything is alive.  I also think everything should make their own decision.

Are viruses parasitizing us to survive?  If we humans want to survive, what can we do to discontinue the virus' survival.  It survives, by spreading from one host to another.  Thus we should stop the spread.  The best way to do that is the mask.  Vaccine or not.  It's the mask.  Are we smarter than the virus?  Are we going to continue it's bidding?  

Parasites are considered alive.  Viruses act parasitically.  What direction would virology take if we considered viruses alive?