Day 5: "Everything is Interconnected" (Pope Francis Laudato Si' 70)

"Everything is Interconnected" (Pope Francis Laudato Si' 70)

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he survival and sustainability of the homo sapiens is, as the naturalist Sir John Arthur Thomson (1861-1933) points out, utterly dependent on the labors of the humble earthworm. "Everything is interconnected" means not just relationship as brothers and sisters. It means so much more like the basic relationship on the level of dependency and needs. On the physical level I depend on the humble earthworms for my continued physical existence more than I would depend on my relationship with people. Without the earthworm's humble devotion of aerating the dense and arid soil none of the food that I rely on would grow. We are all interconnected for we all need each other to exist including the microscopic bacteria that equally rely on the plowing work of the earthworm. For without such terrestrial invertebrate, aka nightcrawlers, there never would have been a single field of vegetation on earth.

Annually on October 21, we give reverence to these amazing earth creatures by celebrating World Earthworm Day. The 21st October is the same day when naturalist Charles Darwin published his book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits in 1881. Darwin observed earthworms for the span of 40 years. He made many observations of earthworm behaviour and their contribution to soil processes including a 29 year experiment measuring the rate that a stone is buried as a result of their burrowing activities in their family garden at Down House, Downe, Kent.

On day five of the Season of Creation let us pause to meditate on how earthworms have given glory to their Creator. Without doubt, they are clearly one of the most useful among all creatures. Day in and day out, they burrow to loosen and condition the earth for raindrops and plant roots to travel, and human and animal foot to trample. At birth they are already fully formed ready for their mission. They break down organic matter into smaller and more useful particles that could fit into the mouth of billions of living forms in one's backyard. They were the first frontline plowers way before the plow was invented. Scientists predict that the average lifespan under field conditions is four to eight years. Quietly throughout a year's dogged work of cultivating compacted soil they give birth to a living humus, a couple of tons worth or a whole elephant's weight, which pass through the hundred thousand tender guts like the neck of an hourglass. We are able to exist, albeit, on borrowed time and space through their hardwork and devotion to all of creation. Who among us could boast as much? 8thWorker.us