By JIM NICHOLS

I am not sure if it is accurate or even true, but it sounds reasonable to me and makes a point that is important. It takes just a little chemistry and biology to talk about it.

Atoms are particles of matter that uniquely define a certain element. There are well over one hundred different elements; the four most common are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Atoms combine with one another to form molecules. For instance, hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine to form a molecule of water. Although no one element is more important than the others, certain ones appear more commonly in key molecules of life. For example, molecules of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids could not be manufactured without the element carbon.

Molecules can be constructed (built) as well as broken down. That is, molecules in general are temporary. On the other hand, the atoms that compose a given molecule are not temporary. There are lots of examples of molecules breaking down, but not the atoms composing that molecule. The important point of this explanation is that the individual atoms constructing one molecule, if that molecule were to be broken down, could be used to construct another molecule of some type. In other words, the individual atoms are recycled; they never get destroyed. If you build one structure with Legos, you can take it apart and build a different structure with the same Legos.

I have been told that someone in the past (apparently with a great deal of time to spare) calculated how many total atoms of carbon were in Abraham Lincoln’s body. The investigator then considered how many generations of humans there had been since Lincoln was alive. Since we understand that carbon atoms are not broken down, this investigator calculated that the body of each of us contained three or four carbon atoms that were also contained in Lincoln’s body. That is, upon Lincoln’s death (as with all deaths) his carbon atoms were dispersed in such a way that a few eventually ended up inside each of us in some molecule; most of the carbons ended up in some other molecule in nature such as soil, rocks, or some other form of life.

When I have used this story in a biology class, those students who were still awake generally rolled their eyes. “So what?” they were thinking.

Many of you would agree with my sense that we live today in a world and even an American society in which differences are emphasized. We see countries and individuals fiercely independent and proud of it. We do not use the phrase much anymore, but the concept of someone living on the “other side of the tracks” still communicates. Before, during, and after the days of Lincoln, people have separated and segregated. Many wish we still were more separated and segregated than we are. The concept of America as a “melting pot” of customs, foods, skin colors, music, and behaviors is actively resisted. There are even people in the country promoting violence to keep white predominance and privilege intact. 

What I like about this carbon story is that it illustrates our similarities. My three or four carbon atoms are different from yours, but they were all part of Lincoln’s body once. 

Furthermore, the story connects us with nature in the most basic way—at the atomic level. The big rock the boy sits on to ponder growing up might contain some of Lincoln’s carbon atoms. The boy feels the wind blow and hears the trees rustle and birds sing, not realizing or caring that the trees and birds are composed of atoms that are recycled just as the atoms of his own body. Our bodies are not immortal, but our atoms are. Writer Chris Highland suggests one could describe God as the “Great Atom-Maker.” Weird idea, but not bad.

My take-home message is that the creation is one; we are all a part of one another and of all around us. Poet Mary Oliver in Sleeping in the Forest speaks of lying on the forest floor and how she “felt the earth remembering her.”

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospice chaplain