Numbers…

This was inspired from the July issue of Reader’s Digest which had some interesting statistics. I did some googling to find some more interesting numbers & facts and because I've been watching the BBC series Planet Earth, I decided to focus my numbers about the earth! Enjoy!


8,749
The height in feet of the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak.

20,320
The height in feet of the highest point in North American, Mount McKinley (Denali).

29,028
The height in feet of the highest point in the world, Mount Everest.

1,312
The lowest point on land (in feet below sea level), the Dead Sea.

36, 198
The lowest point in the Earth’s surface (in feet below sea level), the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

58
The number of U.S. national parks – all of which should be on your list of things to see!

2
The percentage of the earth’s surface covered in rainforest.

50
The percentage of all the species in the world, that resides only in the rainforests.

1,750,000
The number of species have been formally described and given official names. (The estimated number including undescribed species is many times that).

136
The highest temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, recorded in Libya, Africa, 1922.

-128.6
The lowest temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, recorded in Vostok, Antarctica, 1983.

Now…

195
If you count Taiwan. Some don't, like China.

122
Number of "electoral democracies" in the world.

27
The number of recognized "conflicts," including wars, going on right now.

0.2
In square miles, the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.

6,591,027
In square miles, Russia is the largest country in the world.

7,000
The estimated number of languages in the world.

1,052,000,000
The number of first- and second- language speakers of Mandarin worldwide.

6,772,364,200
The population of the earth as of Thursday, June 11, 2009, 1:17pm.

Aha!.....

So in my typical morning internet-surfing/news-blog-reading, I found this blog from NY Times writer Stanley Fish. In it he basically analyzes how the rhetoric of Pres. Obama’s speeches has gone from using the “we” pronoun, to using more the first person “I” pronoun. He lists many examples of the change in pronouns, saying in the end, that it is probably realistic that the oratory has changed in such a way, because of the singular decision making power that comes with the job, but that maybe his speech writers should tone it down.

Now I think his points are valid, and I don’t really have anything to say about the blog itself. Rather, I would like to expand on it because I actually got something else out of the whole thing, something that if I was writing an English paper, would be in my final paragraph, alluding to a “bigger picture” conclusion. (Thank you Plano Sr. High for instilling that paper format into my mind so thoroughly even after 4 years of college, it’s hard to shake off)

My generalization: Isn’t it typical of us; isn’t it human nature to think that we’re doing this alone? With just a little bit of power we start to feel so good about ourselves, we start to think, “Hey I’ve got this. Look what I can do all by myself.” But in truth, we’re not alone in this world, and there’s very little that we truly do on our own. We have a network of people around us that enable us to get things accomplished. It begins with our parents and family and then expands in all directions, including basically everyone who has direct or indirect impact on our lives. As much as we may not want to admit it, even people we don’t like have a hand in our “fate” in some small way.

But wait...

As a Christian, there is an added element, and the most important element. Not only do I have my family and friends, but my faith in God and Jesus. When I remember that I am here because of Him, then it is no longer about me. The real trouble comes in knowing when I am doing His will and when I am following my own selfishness. And it’s a struggle. It’s supposed to be.