The earth has a
shell or crust made of various minerals. Two-thirds of its surface is
water of various depths up to six miles. Above the surface is an
atmosphere, some twenty miles thick, composed of various gases, dust
particles and water vapor. Operating throughout the earth there are
vibrations of different wave lengths.
As a whole the earth is a going concern that carries out its daily,
seasonal, yearly business of providing a home for an immense variety of
forces; for living forms, in the earth, on the earth, in the water and
in the air. The earth and its attributes are the common host or mother
of us all.
Some of earth's inhabitants are "alive". Many of the living forms move
about--and reproduce themselves, passing through a life cycle from birth
to death.
Some among the living forms cluster together into more or less permanent
groups which develop social relationships including communities in which
individuals are born, live and die.
Speaking in metaphors, the sun is the common father of us all, providing
us with light and heat, the earth is the common mother of us all,
providing us with sustenance. We living beings, progeny of sun and
earth, pass through a span or cycle of earthly existence--helping one
another, ignoring one another, jostling one another, annoying and even
killing and devouring one another.
This is a roundabout way of saying that nature, human beings and human
society are part and parcel of a total relationship which includes the
planet earth, the solar system and an immense range of celestia which
includes minute particles of celestial dust, like our earth, and
majestic assemblies of celestial notables like the Island Universe of
which we are unnumbered and barely noticed particles.
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