I am Elvis and Elvis is me
Pixel 5 - 1/3236 sec - f/2.2 - 2.2mm - ISO 39
Embiggen the image
I was almost 10 when Elvis died. He wasn’t really a part of our lives but I remember, vaguely, the day. He wasn't an artist that we listened to, rather artists like Roger Whittaker, Glen Campbell, and Neil Diamond that my father listened to at the time. My dad had an 8-track system in one of his cars, and he only had three cassettes that I can remember (Roger Whittaker, Glen Campbell, and Neil Diamond). Even writing this now I can hear the clunk the 8 track cassette made when it thunked into the stereo in the yellow Holden Torana SLR
The reality is that we—you and I—are made up of a surprisingly small number of minerals and elements, combined with a couple of buckets’ worth of water. These elements have been recycled endlessly, passed down from everything that came before us, likely infused with a healthy dose of whatever it is the sun emits daily.
According to the law of conservation of mass—a basic principle of physics—matter isn’t created or destroyed. If that’s true (and I’ll admit I haven’t delved too deeply into it), then it stands to reason that the atoms that made up Elvis have been scattered across the Earth in an unfathomable state of entropy. This suggests that the ham, cheese and pickle pide I ate today might have contained atoms that were once part of Elvis. Moreover, that same ham, cheese and pickle pide, which was once a pig and a couple of cattle and whatever a pickle is, is now part of me.
Someday, I too will return to the earth. And perhaps, 50 years from now, someone will sip a martini, become a little philosophical, and ponder what they’re truly made of.
Me. You are in part made of me. You are welcome.
The Photo
As is the way, wealthy people take the best spots, but in this case climate change isn't going to force them off the shore line. It's The Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo.
