155 – Perspective

Back from my blog break that included two-and-a-half weeks in France. It was a difficult task but I met the challenge. I hope all is well with you. If all goes as planned, I will continue posting once a week, and sometimes tossing in two.

Click the video above for 2 minutes of background waves while reading.

I like walking on the beach. It is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.

As I look across the vastness of the water and then upward to the sky, I suddenly feel small – very small – and a bit philosophical.

I wonder, is an elephant big? To me, the answer is in the form of a question: As compared to what? Compared to a mouse, yes. But, an elephant standing at the foot of a tall mountain is a mere pixel among the many. However, the same mountain is a tiny dot on our planet. So yes, as compared to what is the proper perspective.

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The elephant, mouse, and I are part of the living world – all composed of cells containing specialized parts – each designed to do a particular function. Cell parts are composed of molecules, such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and numerous inorganics. All of these molecules are composed of individual atoms chemically bonded together. Every atom is an organized collection of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Every proton and neutron is composed of three different types of quarks. Leptons and neutrinos are also in the structure, but my head is beginning to hurt.

All this is within all of us. This journey from molecules to quarks is also in the nonliving world. Is the mouse now big?

I think about chromosomes in the entire living world. Chromosomes carry genetic information in cells. Living things have chromosomes in pairs, but each species has a set number of normal chromosome pairs. For us humans, it’s 23. Think of each pair as “like” pairs. That is, they correspond to each other. They are not identical but are designed to match. Think of one chromosome of the pair from Mom and one from Dad.

I think about how a series of genes make up each chromosome – genes to determine gender, eye color, hair color, insulin production, and more. Each gene contains a specific recipe for that trait. A recipe coded in an alphabet of four letters – A, T, C, and G – the components of DNA. Who would have guessed that a four-letter alphabet could construct so many words?

Genes are like a play or a movie with DNA as the script written in a specialized language. The arrangement of the four letters in sets of three to sequence amino acids to make a protein. Interestingly, it takes only 20 different amino acids to create the many unique proteins in the human body.

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I think about how proteins are essential for most structures and processes with cells and organisms. Proteins for our skin, hair, bones, muscles, cartilage, and internal organs. Protein for chemicals such as hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and hemoglobin. Proteins playing a vital role for processes; such as growth, metabolism, energy production, muscle movement, nerve function, immunity, blood clotting, and many more. Is there any doubt the root word for protein means of first importance?

Yes, except for the chromosome number, this is a structural commonality for elephants, mice, humans, and every living thing. Let us not forget that cells organize into tissues that work together in a common function forming an organ; which is one of several organs working together in a system that a brain can coordinate for many organisms.

All humans are the same species, but not all elephants and mice are the same because different species of elephants and mice exist. Each member of a species is part of a larger population of the same species. Each population forms a community with other populations in the same area – the elephant in an African savannah with giraffes, lions, gazelles, numerous plants, and other populations.

I think about how these populations in the community interact with other community members and the nonliving world of soil, rocks, water, and air as an ecosystem. Each ecosystem overlaps with other ecosystems to be part of a large climatic region such as grasslands, tropical and temperate rainforests, tundra, and a variety of aquatic rivers, lakes, and oceans known as a biome. Is the elephant still big?

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

I think about how all this happens on our planetary home we call Earth. If aliens exist, do you think they call our planet Earth? Nonetheless, Earth is our only home in the solitary confines of what we call space. Well, our only home for now.

I think about how we on Earth are part of a solar system sharing a sun with other planets and moons. Our solar system is one of many in the Milky Way galaxy. I don’t want to think about how many solar systems are in the Milky Way, let alone the number of galaxies in the universe – so the number of quarks is incomprehensible. Is your head spinning?

So, what is big? What is small? The answer is a matter of perspective. It’s a view, an outlook, a reference point, and a way of looking and thinking – and thinking is what I like to do when I walk on the beach. After all, walking on the beach is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.

See what other bloggers have posted about Perspective

• Perspective (an essay)
• Reflections and Perspective (an essay)
• Perspective (a poem)
• Perspective (a personal essay)
• Fungi Perspective (a photo essay)

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