Ashes and Dust

In yesterday's post I mentioned that we need to "look at ourselves as part of our environment rather than looking at our environment as an object outside ourselves from which we must extract a living."  The idea is Biblical.  It is one we typically only hear at funerals, but one that is applicable far beyond that most solemn of occasions.  I refer to Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 which says:

Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both:  As one dies, so dies the other.  All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal.  Everything is meaningless.  All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.  Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth? 

We usually think of these verses in the term "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" rather than looking at the broader passage quoted above.

Within these verses is basic biology and chemistry.  The very same substances -- minerals, water, etc. -- make up all living beings.  We are literally built from the soil of this planet.  Genesis 2:7 says:

...the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The body that we inhabit is in turn host to many other creatures.  It is estimated that there are at least as many non-human cells living within your body as there are human cells.  This includes bacteria, viruses, fungi and other organisms.  These same organisms are often found in the soil which is often the source of introduction into the human body.  We are one with the soil.

When we die, of course we must first discount the fact that most people choose to be encased in a concrete vault at death, our bodies are broken down by chemical action and by the action of the many creatures living within it into the basic chemicals and compounds of which it is composed.  It literally returns to become a part of the soil.

Throughout our lives we eat the products of the soil.  Whether it be directly in the form of plant tissue, or indirectly through animal tissue which is grown from plant tissue, we are eating the soil, although in a much more palatable form.  That soil which is created through the natural processes of various creatures living within it such as worms who digest plant and animal material into a form that can be used by new plants is incorporated into our bodies.

Most of us make some attempt to care for our bodies.  We need to care more for our soil -- the earth -- from which our bodies come.  When I voiced concern for the "trashing" of our environment in yesterday's post, I am not just referring to the aesthetic aspects; I am referring to the impact it has on our very lives.  The chemicals we release into the environment come back to us through that very soil.