It was many years ago. The boy was not more than ten years old as he stood beside the man that early morning. They were both standing on the shore of the Atlantic looking east toward the rising sun. The chill morning air caused a slight shiver to run through the boy. The man, seeming to know without even looking, took off his jacket and draped it over the small shoulders of his son. They walked up to the water’s edge as the man spoke: “You see that wide expanse of water? It is made of billions of gallons, and each gallon is made of tens of thousands of drops.”
The little boy seemed curious. “And what are the drops made of?” he asked.
With a smile, the man replied: “The drops are made of smaller and smaller drops, and each in turn is made of bits and pieces of things that make the very world we live in.”
“What am I made of, Dad?” the boy asked after a short while. “Am I made of the same stuff as the ocean?”
The father smiled as he replied: “Everything is made of everything else, and everything is a part of other things. As you stand here this morning, you are a part of this land,...