We become so accustomed to water that we have to be reminded how miraculous liquid is. Most matter in the universe is a gas, each molecule so flush with energy it rushes headlong through space, tied to nothing but itself. Sometimes it finds itself plunged into a mass of others and in so doing is lost. Crushed into a solid where each atom is held so tightly by every other atom that none can ever break free. More often it reaches an opposite fate, it finds itself getting more energy than it can take and can no longer hold itself together, forced to watch helpless as its electrons slip away as it becomes plasma. These are the more common fates of atoms. Only in a few rare spots does something else happen. Something truly extraordinary. Some atoms come together and though they become mutually trapped in the resulting web of connections they do not give up their own energy. They do not crystallize but instead keep moving, bound but not imprisoned. They become liquid.
We look at the stars and marvel at the miraculous nature of Earth that only here have we yet found life, but the existence of life is but a mere extension of Earth's main miracle: Abundant liquid water. The great prerequisite for life. We can imagine life without water if we try, Carl Sagan hypothesized ammonia based life as close as Titan, but we are hard pressed to imagine life without liquid. Indeed, life on Earth is little besides liquid. We imagine ourselves solid, but the percentages tell us otherwise. We are water. And life's liquidity is not limited to its composition. The behavior of life is that of liquid writ large: A vast web of semi-independent actors, each pursuing their own course yet inescapably bound to one another. Animal life is a way for the ocean to spread its dominion over the surface, and like the ocean it has its own ebb and flow. Recently life in the shape of humans has flowed over the world entire. We have crashed our way into every niche and cranny like surf breaking upon the rocks, and while we congratulate ourselves on our total victory I fear we may be missing the beginning of the turning of the tide. Humanity may yet recede, and we may be feeling now the first gentle pulls of that great ebb.