We are the Ocean

“Mr. Talley, why don’t we call our planet the Ocean instead of the Earth?” a student asked me once upon a time.

Like any good teacher, I answered his question with another question, striving to get him to think more deeply (not to mention that such a method is also a savvy trick for buying some time - while one thinks more deeply toward a reasonable answer). “Can you show me why you think we should call it the Ocean?” I asked him.

The bright, inquisitive little boy seized our classroom globe and held it out in front of him. Then he slowly spun the globe, while telling me to back up across the room.

“Don’t you see it from back there, Mr. Talley?” asked the little genius (an ability to think deeply is inherent in virtually all children, if we teach them how to develop it within themselves).

“Don’t you see, Mr. T.? Don’t you see how the further away you get, the bluer it looks? We must look totally blue from far away. I think our planet should be called the Ocean, not the Earth.”

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Much like the surface of the planet on which we live (whether one calls it Earth or Ocean), our human bodies are made up mostly of water. If need be, most people can survive for several weeks without food. But none of us can live more than a few days without water. Liquid water is truly the “elixir of life” as we know it. Wherever on Earth we have ever found water, we have also found life.

Indeed, all living things on our planet are made up mostly up of water - including every single living thing that came before us. Now … keep that thought in mind as you ponder this miraculous fact; because nature constantly recycles out planet’s water supply - again and again and again - the exact same water molecules that make up who you are … once made up the bodies of dinosaurs.