I rarely write about the day’s biggest headlines for one of two reasons. I figure, first of all, by the time you come around to reading this, you’ve already been saturated with every fact known to man/woman about the current headline of the day. And the second thing? Perhaps you come here to have a little relief from that scene, whatever it may be.
So, in as much brevity as I can muster, I will only say that we witnessed a truly wonderful and significant event on January 20, 2021, with the peaceful transition of power to President Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
And with that said, I’ll move along to another topic. I’d like to consider oxygen. It is the eighth element on the Periodic Table, with an atomic weight of oxygen is 15.999. Everybody rounds it up to an even sixteen. Oh. Sweet Sixteen.
While we step on scales, the weight of an element is determined by the total number of protons and neutrons in the atom, with a little extra dash added in for those tiny electrons.
Oxygen is a gas. It is colorless, odorless, and tasteless in that form. And it is everywhere. As you know, we absolutely need it to live.
So we breathe in the air. Which, by the way, is about 21% oxygen. The rest is mostly nitrogen, at 78%.
It is fairly abundant in our atmosphere. But it needs to be replenished, and we rely on plants for that goodness. That photosynthesis thing, and all. You might guess trees are the main producers of oxygen. But, nope. About 70% of free oxygen comes from photosynthesis by green algae and blue-green algae.
It is probably good we have what we have. You see, it is believed that oxygen used to be at much higher concentrations in prehistoric times. That is the reason everyone was so much larger way back then. About 300 million years ago, dragonflies were as large as birds. Penguins were seven feet tall.
I could go on about this, as I love to think about the incredible world of the small, as it relates to the amazing world of the infinitely large.
But the best thing about oxygen, is that it is a part of a wonderful phrase that we use when something good happens.
We say, “It was like a breath of fresh air.”
Today, for the first time in a long time, I feel like I am breathing again.
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Breathing is the greatest pleasure in life.
– Giovanni Papini
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“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
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“How do you tell if something’s alive? You check for breathing.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
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How oxygen weighs in, now more than ever.
