Off the deep end.

pigfalls rockyrocks

leaffffe

Here is what we don’t know.

A freaking lot.

We know far less than we know.  That is for sure.  Let’s forget for a moment, the rest of the entire vastness of infinity, of the universe, of all the various forms of energy.  Let’s relax our little brains and let ALL of that go for right now.

Let’s stick to Planet Earth. This big blue ball right underneath your feet. That’s right.  Look down right now.  That is earth…. touching the soles of your shoes, or the balls of your feet.

We are on the minority of it.  Us land-dwellers.  Wouldn’t you know? Seventy-five percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water (and most of the water is salty.  Salt. Salt.  I love me… Salt!).

Of course, if you like the frigid…there’s something here for you too. About five percent of Earth’s water is frozen solid and exists as glaciers.  Those big-floaty-icecubes cover  about ten percent of the land surface.

Not so long ago…. about ten or twenty thousand years ago…. a large glacier (or biggy ice sheet)  covered most of North America.

And.  Another little factoid.  On average the Atlantic Ocean is the saltiest of Earth’s major oceans.

Now… all of that is just on the surface of things.

The best part is what we don’t see most of the time.  There are different levels underneath the big blue.

There is the Eupotic Zone (Upper Zone).  That is where the fish we know swim…. you know… Nemo’s friends.  Jellyfish, herring, mackerel,  sharks, and such.  Also the crabby types.. The crustaceans such as this lobster all inhabit shallow and surface waters. This part goes down to 200 m (660 ft) are pretty warm (up 77°F), sunlit, and rich in oxygen.

Just below that is the Bathyal Zone.  Creatures such as this brittlestar, squid, and hatchetfish live here.  This is deeper… by a lot.  Like 200–2,000 m (660–6,600 ft). A little sunlight gets through here. Not much.  Colder too.  About 41°F.

Hold your breath.  Now we have that good old Abyssal Zone.  Abyss.  Scary.  Boo.   Let me put it into words.   Pitch-black.  Ice-cold.  And.  Well below 6,000 feet.  Who lives here?  The ugly.  One such fish is the fangtooth. Animals that live in these vast abyssal waters have to be able to cope with immense water pressure and freezing temperatures.

It gets deeper.  Some parts of the ocean drop off to depths of 10,000 m (33,000 ft) or more.   This part is called the hadal zone.  I think because it is close to Hades.   We don’t know about these depths.  A couple of explorers have sent equipment down this far.  And here is all they brought back.  “We detected life.”

Oh good.  Well.

I for one hope it stays down there.

So. As you see.   When you look out across the waters of the ocean, we see the immensity, the vastness, the girth.  And that is just the surface.

There are worlds below we don’t see.  Things we have never imagined.  Some things we probably never will see.  Or comprehend.  I mean the sheer thought about the pressure that exists at that depth is confounding.

And.  This is life.  This is a great example of life.  Of situations.  Of people.  Of the day to day.

In every interaction of our waking hours, there is more that we do not know than we know.  If you don’t believe me, think about something so simple as that toast you are eating.

It would be very hard to explain how it got there by including everyone that was involved in getting it to your plate. (Okay.  Who’s the wise-acre who just said… “It got on my plate because  walked to the toaster and brought it back.”?  Who said that?)

Back to the toast.  Think about the layers and the complexity of getting that toast to YOU.  From the time the wheat was planted and every vehicle that went into planting that wheat.  How those vehicles were manufactured, or engineered… where they were sold.. and who worked at that John Deere dealership.  And how did they get that job?  How was their building constructed?  Who purchased that land?

Okay… that is just considering one facet of how that wheat was planted.  We haven’t even considered the seeds, and how they arrived to the farmer’s farm.  Who planted, watered, and harvested those seeds?  And on and on… right up to the toaster, and the electricity that runs it.

You see.  It is all the deep end of the ocean.
We don’t know much about any of it.  From our breakfast food to the upcoming elections.

Yep.  Let’s face it.  We are toast.

And in the deep end of the ocean.


“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”   ― Albert Einstein, The World As I See It

 

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles