Who Put the Salt in Salt Water?

photo by Patchouly/Flickr

I read once of the possibility, in odds, of the millions of variables necessary to keep life sustainable on earth, just happening as it were, accidentally. It wasn't a bet my bookmaker buddies would make.

It computed out-in-space factors like earth's distance from the sun, the sun's size and temperature, the existence of earth's one moon, the numbers and sizes of planets in our solar system that have gravitational pull on earth, and other more minute aspects of everyday things, like the air we breath, its finely regulated chemical composition, and the fact that the atmosphere protects us from dangerous solar rays.

Then at the beach the other day looking out into the ocean I thought of salt water.

What if the oceans weren't salty? What if they were like lakes? What would that do to the earth's ecosystem? And where did the salt come from? How did nature know what proportions of salt and H2O to use?

We don't appreciate the complexity of things whether distant or near, because like breathing air, many of our actions are involuntary and we don't have to understand them to benefit from them. I just open my eyelid, and I see, and I understand. I never say to myself, open eyelid - see - interpret object. It just happens. It's kind of magical really. But get one teeny chemical disproportion, anywhere in the body, and like a tiny grain of sand in your eye, the whole system breaks down.

I think one can deduce with some intellectual honesty, that a First Cause or Prime Mover is a good bet. The question of who or what that First Cause is another question. But that there is something greater than the universe seems perfectly plausible to me.

A Request From a Reader . . .

Flickr photo by Joshbousel


When my wife and I moved to Fort Worth in the early '80s, better days had seen downtown. That's being polite. Many of the shops, department stores and restaurants of the 50's were there but not there. Downtown Fort Worth, like just about every big city in the country, lost residents to the suburbs and retail had followed. Malls became Main Streets. Fortunately, that is no longer the case and Fort Worth is a model city for a vibrant downtown.

That's a long preface to a short request.

Every once in a while someone will tell me a childhood story of something they liked and miss about the downtown of the 50'- 70's. It usually involves a donut, pastry, ice cream or other sweet confection. Over the weekend, I got a request for an old downtown Fort Worth department store recipe. Here's the request sent to my email:

I found a reference to you and your email address when I was Googling Monnig's, where I worked the summer between high school and college in 1956. Yes, a long time ago. I am writing you because I would like to find a recipe for the very excellent breakfast muffins the Monnig's coffee shop baked and served daily. If it has been saved and is available somewhere, I surely appreciate that information.

If you can assist, the email was from Frank Miles, email address: frankmiles3@sbcglobal.net. I'd like to hear about it, too.

Post a comment. I like the stories of the old stores downtown.

Miscellania . . .

1. You guys are slipping. No one corrected me on the use of the word timber as it related to Merle Haggard's voice. It sounds right. But it is wrong. The word is timbre. And, it is pronounced more like tamber. I looked it up.

2. I heard from Stephen that the Beethoven concert at Bass Hall was fantastic. Thanks to Rambler for the reminder, otherwise he wouldn't have known about it.
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Fourth Sunday of Easter

Peter and Paul / El Greco / 1590

From the First Epistle of St. Peter

Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.

For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

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From the website, Art and the Bible
On the left: St. Peter. On the right: St. Paul, holding his traditional attribute, a sword. Hardly visible is the set of keys that Peter is holding in his left hand. El Greco made two more, almost identical, paintings of the two apostles. One was made in 1587-92 and is currently in the Hermitage museum; the other is from 1605-08 and may be found in the Stockholm Nationalmuseum.