Dear Spike:
Tomorrow we'll head to Los Angeles to visit some of our family and play bit at the beach. It's been over a year since we took you to the ocean — and you were asleep that time — so this might as well be your first experience seeing the Pacific.
I love the ocean. In school, you'll learn there are several — the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic — but if you think about it, it's really just one big body of water, every drop in motion from one place to the next. And in that way, it connects us all. The water that washes over your sand-covered feet in Los Angeles once passed under the great sailing vessels of the Mediterranean Sea. And the water that passed under those ships once splashed against the Great Barrier Reef near Australia.
On to the great Maverick waves of Hawaii. On to the angry tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico. Onto the lazy currents of the Bosphorus River, where east meets west on the 28 percent of the surface of our earth that we call terra firma.
Half of the air we breath is produced by tiny phytoplankton that ride the currents on the surface of the seas. So even when you live far away from the shores, as we do, you are still connected, with every breath, in and out and in and out.
But it is when you can smell the salt air, I think, that you will know it best: The ocean is a special place — every molecule is as vital to our existence as the tiny electrons spinning 'round in our minds. She is our mother. And we must take good care of her.
Love,
dad
1 comment:
I learned some things in this entry, but I also have something to add. There is now a 5th ocean - the Southern Ocean, which is on all newer maps and globes, and it surrounds Antarctica. You would think they would make some world announcement or something but I just heard a guest speaker in my class mention it once and sure enough. There it is. Thought I would share.
And I didn't know you guys were going out of town, Until August. HAVE FUN!
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