10 things to love about dirt

  1. It cleanses toxic chemicals from the air.
  2. It will decompose me, you, and everybody else.
  3. It turns cowpies to cowpeas and “crap to carrots” (thanks to Upamanyu Chatterjee for this fine phrase).
  4. It inactivates pathogens.
  5. It purifies water.009
  6. It feeds the plants, which feed the animals, which feed the dirt again.
  7. Given a few million years, it turns to rock.
  8. Every single object can be traced to soil.
  9. Mixed with water, it becomes luscious mud–feeling good on fingers, toes, and just about any other part of the body.
  10. I play in it every week in ceramics class.

More, anyone?

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4 Responses to 10 things to love about dirt

  1. Amy Oscar says:April 6, 2009 at 9:17 am

    Warmed and slathered all over the body in a spa (or other mud-friendly zone); heaven! (PS As a young mom, I found it reassuring to learn that humans consume an average of one pound of dirt each year! I don’t know where I got that fun-fact but it made me worry less and let my children play much more freely.)

  2. Jen McG. says:April 13, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    Holy Shit! literally…

    • Priscilla Stuckey, PhD says:April 14, 2009 at 2:54 pm

      Yep, literally!

  3. Sanmccarron says:April 22, 2009 at 6:02 am

    We are all just dust of the stars, making us all light beings and belonging not only to each other but to all soil and organisms of the Earth.