"MOTHER EARTH´s APPENDIX," by Luz Miranda, professional translator from Tampa, Florida

It is clear that the sea surrounding Florida and the Caribbean belongs to a natural recycling area for renewal of the Earth in order to achieve the stability and balance of our planet´s climate. For this reason, as there are great quantities of energy spread in the area at certain times of the year, Florida should not be a place to inhabit the whole year. Of course, there are exceptional places where people can escape major damage. Areas of certain elevation with hills and mountains where people can be safe in times of cyclones and hurricanes –as I see in the case of Cuba and Puerto Rico, for example. The Cuban mountains can reach up to about 6600 feet (2000 meters) above sea level, while the ones in Puerto Rico can be as high as about 4,266 feet (1300 meters) above sea level.
 
When you read about the geography and geology of Florida, you can conclude that Florida is a “swamp;" it is a place for only alligators, lizards, in fact, for the local flora and fauna. Florida should be exclusively a resort place for vacations and a place for ecological research in mild seasons of the year. In Tampa, Florida –where I live— the mild season is from November to May. It is very warm and hot from May on, and we depend a lot on air conditioning.
 
People have not been properly informed about coming to live in Florida, since living and staying the whole year in Florida can be very dangerous. There are places in Florida that remind me of some places of Lima, Peru -my homeland-, where some negligent people without municipal permit build houses on the dangerous banks of rivers although they know they are going against the local law and the laws of nature  -so, in Lima every year or almost every year, during the rainy season landslides “huaycos” appear and destroy everything. In the case of Florida, the rulers have been intimidated and/or tempted by the money of rich land developers and knowingly have accepted the construction of whole cities. I support this idea, because geographical and geological research must have been done before permits for construction were given.

​I have found that tropical cyclones or hurricanes are important, because they have an important function in our planet, as stated in the following:
​“Though their effects on human populations are often devastating, tropical        cyclones can relieve drought conditions. They also carry heat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes, which may play an important role in modulating regional and global climate.”[1]
 
As I deep-dived into my thoughts, I remembered that the infinite wisdom of the Eternal –God—lovingly takes care of us and knows what to do to make creation perfect. So, that praiseworthy work that that infinite wisdom of the Eternal has done in our bodies came to my mind, and I was reminded of the appendix. The following  might be a weird parallelism for you, however, let me explain it to you.

When I was twelve years old, one of my beloved cousins was rushed to a clinic for emergency surgery after suffering appendicitis. When I asked why that had happened to her, because she was so young, an adult told me that there was no explanation. Likewise, when I asked what the appendix was for, since it was removed from her, they told me that the appendix was a remnant of ancient humans and indeed nobody knew what it was for, and also that during the process of evolution it had lost its real purpose.
​The appendix is a small organ of about 2.756 inches to 3.15 inches (7 to 8 centimeters) long and of 0.157 inch to 0.315 inch (4 to 8 millimeters) in diameter, it sits in the lower right abdomen and is a small attachment connected to the caecum that has the shape of a finger.

​For decades, I thought that a better answer was still pending. Nevertheless, as decades went by, I was pleasantly surprised when I read in the news that they had just discovered that the appendix did actually have a function, and a crucial one. In 2007, a prestigious American university, Duke University, discovered the following about the appendix and its function:
​“Long denigrated as vestigial or useless, the appendix now appears to have a       reason to be - as a "safe house" for the beneficial bacteria living in the human gut. The gut is populated with different microbes that help the digestive system break down the foods we eat. In return, the gut provides nourishment and safety to the bacteria. Parker now believes that the immune system cells found in the appendix are there to protect, rather than harm, the good bacteria.”[2]
 
A catastrophe is to come to some parts of Florida this first week of September of 2017, with global warming it becomes imperative that city life be adapted and made according to what mother nature -who cries out for the reconsideration of its existence- demands. The Earth, our planet, needs to recycle itself constantly. Consistently, we see that it has its own defense mechanism to guarantee the life of future generations. Let us not forget that ancient native American proverb: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."  May the infinite wisdom of the Eternal, for its love, bless the creation always.  

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone 
[2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008102334.htm
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