The Ocean: Wonder and Awe

One thing that stirs up wonder and awe in me is the ocean. It is fairly common knowledge that about seventy percent of our world is ocean, but when you really consider this fact, it is incredible. Think about it: about three-fourths of our world cannot be inhabited, that means that all out lives we can only experience one fourth of our Earth. Could the world really be considered ours since we only inhabit a small minority of it? There is a whole realm of flora and fauna hidden by the ocean, some of which we have not even identified yet. Does it not make sense to say that this is actually their world since they can live in the majority of it and we can only survive on random areas where tectonic plates forced land to jut above the ocean (an animation of how tectonic plates formed the Earth is shown below). Maybe we need to rethink all of our arrogant claims to the Earth.

There are immense amounts of marine life that have yet to be discovered. There is debate over whether this is an "atlantic lionfish" or a completely new species.

The vastness of the ocean is staggering in itself. The largest ocean in the world, the Pacific Ocean, covers about 165 million square kilometers (64 million square miles), which is greater than all of the Earth's landmass put together. Because of their immensity, the oceans serve as a barrier between different peoples. This separation creates different cultures. For instance, the Native Americans had lived myriad years without even knowing that horses existed while horses were widely used in Europe. It was not until the Spaniards overcame the vastness of the ocean in the sixteenth century that the Native Americans saw and put to use a horse, which greatly impacted their culture, allowing them to greatly expand their territory, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game. Think of how much more connected we would be if the oceans never existed. I believe that it is beneficial to our lives that people have different cultures, though. It is incredible that Eritrea, a country which has a slight Christian majority, is seperated from Mecca, the center of the Muslim religion, only by the 190-mile long Red Sea. It is so amazing how we have developed into so many different cultures and can still exist (more or less) in some degree of peace.

All of the things I have talked about in this last paragraph are examples of awe. They are all things that I understand but astound me. But the ocean also has its wonderful, inexplicable qualities. Like the sense of overwhelming amazement that comes over you when you see the sun setting on the ocean's horizon, or how the moonlight glistens off the black ocean surface in beautiful and erratic patterns. It is in these moments that we know there has to be a higher being. It is not a feeling that can be put into words, but when you see such mystifying beauty, you know there is something more behind it than just the falling of a big flaming ball beyond the horizon.