Life on Earth

Ever since I can remember, people have been deeply curious about possible life on other planets. My generation grew up watching movies about Martians, and then the Star Trek TV series and the Star Wars saga took our collective imaginations beyond our solar system, beyond our galaxy, and expanded our fascination about extra-terrestrial life far into the unknown.

This quest for life elsewhere is real. It is built into our very human-ness. It has energized explorers for millennia, and continues to urge us to defy the very gravity that holds us on our home planet. I recently read an article in Earth/Sky about the very exciting news that despite evidence from former studies, the building blocks of life may already be at work in the vast oceans of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. You can see that article here.

All of this is fascinating to us. To me. I will never deny that. I wrote a Substack essay a year or so ago about our gallant little space ambassador called Voyager (if you missed it, you can see it right here), and I continue to be enthralled by the idea that it’s about to cross over the threshold of our sun’s influence into whatever lies beyond.

But while admitting that the call to look elsewhere is very strong, I remind myself that I am a creature of earth. We are of the earth. Earth is our home. And while we look beyond for life, let’s never forget that our own home planet is teeming with it. Life that is intricate, relational, fascinating, and in many cases, unexplored. According to the Science Museum of Virginia, 86% of life forms on land and 91% of those in the waters have yet to be studied. Our planet has so many secrets yet to be revealed, so many treasures to be discovered!

So, while we get excited about what might lie beyond this globe of ours, let’s keep in mind the precious life forms, the fascinating minerals and gems, the miracle of air and water that we can explore, appreciate, and champion, without ever leaving Earth. Shakespeare’s tragic hero Coriolanus proclaims, “There is a world elsewhere.” I respond, “There is a world right here.”

Life on Earth

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Note to Readers: Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning Lent, a six-week period on the Christian calendar set aside for prayerful introspection. This year the Lenten observance overlaps with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with its call to fasting, generosity, and devotion. When Lent is nearing its conclusion, our Hindu friends will be celebrating Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the Hindu New Year and celebration of the coming of Spring. And right around the same time, Jews around the world will celebrate freedom and Jewish identity with the holy feast of Passover. This period of transition from Winter to spring is a sacred season.

Beginning next Tuesday, February 24, I will begin a six-week series focusing on Winter-to-Spring, Rest-to-Growth, Death-to-Life. We enter this season in the dead of winter. By the time it ends, spring will have arrived. How will the world outside our windows change during this time? What can these changes teach us? I hope that everyone, regardless of religion, will join me as we observe, through the eyes of Nature, the slow but sure return of greening, and the lessons our revolving Earth has to share with us.