Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio

My great-grandpa had a stroke on Thursday, and has lost a lot of strength in one side of his body. He's having a hard time swallowing, and may need to live in a nursing home.

Hearing this news has reminded me of the fragility of life, how lucky each one of us truly are to be alive. The way the earth has developed has fallen inside the tiny margin of criteria in which organisms can survive and evolve. Billions of years ago, the earth was formed of cosmic dust and materials similar to meteorites, conglomerating into a large mass. The layering of earth's materials into crust, mantle and core began when radioactive material in the earth's mass began decaying, releasing energy that became heat. As the earth heated, rocks melted and softened, allowing them to shift positions freely, the densest rocks moving towards the core and the lightest rocks moving outward, forming a thin crust. Still, the heat of the core and solar power from the sun kept earth's surface at a temperature that allowed for liquid water to accumulate, probably originating from water vapor in volcanic gasses and comets (solid balls of ice) that collided with the earth.

The ocean is likely the most important step of life's origins and evolution in the earth's history. Because the atmosphere of earth at that time was formed mostly from volcanic gas, it was toxic to life as we know it today, high in sulfur, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. In addition, the atmosphere was too thin to protect earth's surface from solar radiation. The oceans supported life by providing oxygen, and filtering radiation from the sun more efficiently than the atmosphere at that time. Life began in the primordial soup, what we today call oceans. We are indebted to water for our lives and lifestyles.

About 1.8 billion years ago, an extremely primitive alga developed a special technique for nourishment. Using solar energy, these organisms converted absorbed carbon dioxide into sugars, and expelled oxygen. Today, we call this process photosynthesis. Because plants need carbon dioxide to survive, the atmospheric content was suitable for their development. Eventually, the spread of plantlife began to replace the excess of carbon dioxide with oxygen, which paved the way for land animals by developing a thicker atmosphere richer in life-supporting elements.

These events and my own life are dependent on: the explosion of a star, creating a nebula where a solar system could form; the conglomeration of cosmic dust in an orbit at a specific distance from the sun; that the materials massed included radioactive elemtns that would eventually decay; that the energy released would heat the planet enough to cause volcanic activity; that enough water vapor and ice would amass to form oceans; and that environment, mutation and other circumstances would cause algae to evolve to use photosynthesis as a method of nourishment. All of these things are simply a few of the prehistoric events that were necessary to my life existing today. Millions more exist, in addition to the millions of historic and recent events that caused my life to be possible.

I am thankful for geology, for evolution, for mutation and changes. I am thankful for water, for air, for volcanoes and earthquakes. I am thankful for creation and destruction, for evolution and stagnation, for animals and plants. I am thankful for my ancestors, for my grandparents, for my parents and other family. I am thankful for each individual that ever crossed the path of one of my blood, for it is every decision ever made that has influenced what is today. I am thankful for scientists and inventors, for new dogmas and resistance to change. I am thankful for life, and while today I cannot be thankful for death, I can say I know it is inevitable, I accept it must happen, and I vow to look for what I am thankful for rather than pitying myself or others. Sympathy is acceptable; pity, moping and self-doubt are not.

I miss my uncle.