Put it in a Box

Howdy Friends and Neighbors, Reverend Squeaky-Eye here.   It has been a good long while since I have had the pleasure of addressing you fine Sisters and Brothers.  What with moving all the way across the ocean, from the New World to the Old World as the scholars call it, and the varied meanderings of life's stream, time has a way of getting the best of a fella.

Anyway, and be that as it may, Marco has turned over the helm for the time being.  Between his struggles with the Demon of Deutsche Grammar and the joyful burden of scribbling novels, his time is stretched tighter than a bean pole with a good crop come August.  Basically, he just walked off muttering something like "Do what you can Rev."  Never being one to let fall the cudgels when a Brother is in a pinch, I am happy to take up the tale and try to move things forward.

During my hiatus, I have spent a fair share of my time pondering the state of the planet.  Now I know, I know, you're going to say to me "Reverend Squeaky-Eye, just what do you mean by that?  Things are in a hell of a mess."  You would be right to ask just that question and I would be agreeing with you most heartily.  In fact, there would be so many lines of inquiry that a man could get as befuzzled as a bird dog trying to point in four directions at one.  So, before we head off all half-cocked, I figured we could just settle in on one tiny line of discussion and see where it leads us.

Friends and Neighbors, what I have been pondering on is the nature of the Infinite and the Finite.  Now, your truly infinite items are rare indeed.  For example, take a mother's love for a truly ornery child.  We all know that child, that little hell-raiser, the one that despite all efforts to the contrary ends up dumping molasses on the family cat and gets one hell of a kick out of doing so.  This little hellion shreds the fabric of the patience of all those around him, and yet, and yet still, the mother of this little beast continues to love and cherish him, molasses dumping notwithstanding.  The love of that mother is infinite, and it is a damn good thing because no one else can stand the brat.

Now, aside from a mother's love and few other wonders of nature, most everything else is finite.  Now I can hear you asking me "Reverend, how are you defining the word finite?"  Good for you, because that is the nub of the question and I think that I have a solid answer.  Regardless of what resource we are talking about, if you can put the thing in a box, it is finite.  It doesn't matter how big the box is, if you can imagine it fitting into a box, the item in question becomes a finite resource.

Now why would this matter to anyone?  What I am really getting at is the fact that we are just not doing the best job of managing the resources of this fine planet.  Let's just take two examples and see where they run to, how about that? 

Most of us use steel everyday.  Now I don't mean that we are out forging steel, although I send a tip of the Rev lid to all of those hard-working men and women in the steel plants.  Nor are most of us beating swords into ploughshares, more's the pity.  What I mean to say is that we depend on steel for our day-to-day existence, as the skeletons for our office buildings, the ships and rails that transport our goods, the frames for our automobiles.  One of the crucial ingredients in the magical mix that becomes steel is an element called Molybdenum.

If you refer to your handy Periodic Table of Elements, you will find Molybdenum at number 42.  It is the 54th most common element in the earth's crust.  Most of the Molybdenum mined in the world comes from China, the USA and Chile.  The stuff looks a lot like lead, but it contributes some amazing stuff to the properties of steel.  It makes steel harder and tougher and increases the strength of steel, particularly at high temperature.  This crazy lead-like metal has one of the highest melting points of all of the naturally occurring elements, staying solid up to a whopping 4,753 degrees Fahrenheit.  That is about on par with the fires of hell, near as I can figure.  Of course, the fires of hell might just be a sort of metaphorical, if you get my drift. 

So, why should any of us care about this MO stuff, this elemental 42?  Well, without Molybdenum, steel as we know it would be a mighty different thing.  Now, there is still a lot of this stuff rooted in the earth's crust.  This is not a rare element.  The question is, as we have posed above, is this a finite resource?  We an give it the test.  If we took all of the MO 42 on old Planet Earth, could we put it all in a box?  The answer is yes.  Granted, that would have to be one big durned box.  The point is though, if we had a box big enough, and we had all of the Molybdenum, we could do just that.  So, yes, a finite resource. 

Now let's go back to our Periodic Table of Elements.  You've got it handy, right.  Good.  Okay then, wander on down past ole' number 42.  Down a bit further, between numbers 57 and 71, inclusive,  you will find yourself smack dab amongst the Rare Earths.  No, Brethren, this is not an old rock band.  The Rare Earths are very strange elements ranging from Lanthanum (No 57) right on through to Lutetium (No 71).  I know what you're asking:  "Good Rev, have you flipped your wig for real this time?  Why should anyone give a hoot about something with as silly a name as rare earth?"  I will answer your question with another?

Do you own a cellular phone?

You see, rare earth is an essential component of the tiny little magnetic bits that make up cellular phones.  Where would we be without those wonderful devices that let us have private conversations in public, send text messages while we are driving, and cause us to bump into things on the street that we would otherwise be paying attention to.  Truly, it is so bad that in Portland Oregon the folks that run the MAX train had to put up signs warning people to look up from their phones so as to avoid getting squashed like june-bugs.  Sorry, slight digression.  Back to the use of Rare Earths in cellular phones.

These elements are not named Rare Earths for nothing.  The stuff is rare.  The majority of the Rare Earth deposits are found in China.  Here is the deal:  no Rare Earth, no cel phones as we know them.  That's right, no smartphones.  (Really, are we smarter?)

So, could we gather up all of the Rare Earths and place them in a box?  Yes we could, and it would be a much smaller box than that big old thing we put all of the Molybdenum in.  Another finite resource. 

Finite, Infinite.  Now I know that there are some folks out that there that advocate "Wise-Use."  These folks believe that the our planet, and everything in or on it, was put here for our use.  These same folks advocate using up all of the resources as the natural course of things before the world comes to an end.  Setting aside the amazing top-of-the-food-chain egotism that this attitude implies, the sheer shortsightedness of of such an outlook is staggering.  I mean, think of even that little molasses dumping brat!  His momma loves him.  Shouldn't the horrid little beast have a chance to grow up and know that somewhere on the planet there will still be one bottle of molasses left?  There you go, another finite resourse.

I guess what it comes down to is just a small thought experiment.  When we are going through are daily tasks, caring for our Brethren, getting on with the business of getting on, how mindful are we being of what we are using up.  I'm suggesting that we think about what we leave in those boxes.  What will our own little infinitely loved children find when they open up the boxes, long after we are gone?

Well, that's about it for now Friends and Neighbors.  This is the Reverend Squeaky-Eye signing off.  Be happy, be well, and keep a sharp eye out for the old Downpressor Man.  Adios for now.