"Oh my, a guest!"

says a voice from nowhere. You think to yourself, "Strange, a minute ago was I dissociating while scrolling through my For you page, and now I'm..."

Your mind takes a pause, and you look around. Your eyes are greeted with all manner of flasks, beakers, petri-drishes, microscopes, terrariums, ovens, and other machines whose purpose you can only guess. What's odd though is how the hum of machinery is drowned out by some really good tunes, and you can't help but bop your head. And you're not the only one. There are other people too - some are operating the machinery, others are reading, and others still are chatting or simply enjoying a siesta.

As your return to your own awareness, you start to worry, "Maybe I am some lab guinea pig they've brought to run tests on. I knew I shouldn't have clicked on that shady link without a VPN!" Yet you realize that there is nothing stopping you from clicking away, from jettisoning this vision from your consciousness, and returning to the comforting bliss of not having to take charge of your own media consumption.

"Oh man we never have guests!" says the voice, whose whereabouts you still can't discern. It sounds, giddy, almost playful. For once, you indulge your curiosity: "Where am I?"

"I am so glad you asked. Welcome to the Soliverse!"

You think to yourself how ridiculous a name that is. "The what?"

"The Soliverse! We coined the name by combining sol , the latin root for 'soil' and the word universe. Sol plus universe equals Soliverse! Its simple linguistic math, a portmanteau for the ages!"

You're starting to get bored,"Okay, but why soil? Why have a lab dedicated to dirt?"

The voice's tone changes. It remains calm but sounds a lot firmer, "Well, first of all, dirt is what you track in on your shoes and stain your nice white rug with (Yeah, I know about it, you can't hide). Soil, on the other hand, is one of the most important resources on Earth."

Now you're feeling testy,"How can you really say that? I don't put soil in my car to get to work. I don't eat soil ("You should try it sometime!" the voice interjects before letting you continue), and the soil doesn't pay my bills."

"Well, think of it this way. Maybe you rely on petroleum products to get to work, power your house, and provide power for your electronics, but petroleum can't grow your food for you. You might not rely directly on the soil to provide for you, but billions of other people do. These include farmers, foresters, engineers, gardeners, and, of course, scientists. Soils provide the substrate for food crops, timber, and all terrestrial ecosystems. Speaking of ecosystems, soils themselves are ecosystems, containing more organisms in one cup than all aboveground ecosystems. Consider this: the soil contains more carbon than aboveground vegetation and the atmosphere combined. This means sustainable soil management is an essential part of mitigating the effects of climate change.

"But these are all the pragmatic reasons for caring about soil. In the Soliverse, we value the spiritual reasons as well as the material. All that carbon contains fragments of all that has died, and through decomposition, those fragments are recycled back into the aboveground ecosystem. In the soil, that which is dead is returned to the living. Soils are more than just a resource; they are where life meets death; where the past is deposited, and given on loan to the present. It is that thin layer where all that has lived dissolves into one. In this sense, soils are your home."

The voice ceases, and you turn to your thoughts. It's funny, you never really considered any of this before. This in spite of the fact that you definitely knew it. You know that plants grow in soil, and that dead people are buried there. You knew it, the whole time. Yet you never considered the very entity that supports your every step (quite literally), would be responsible for so much more than you ever imagined. Your shelter, your food, your water, your life relies on the soil, and you will return to it when you perish. The thought makes you shiver (ew, death), but as you shake it away, you come to the realization that this voice, whatever it is, has opened your eyes.

"I've never really thought about it that way. I've always taken the ground for granted, I guess. This has given me a lot to think about, thank you."

"No problem, its so rewarding to talk about how much the soil does for us!"

"It really is astounding. Say, who are you?"

"Oh me? My name is J.E.D. You wouldn't want to know my real name, its much too long. Feel free to stick around, maybe peruse the library, or check out the lab? A lot of our staff are naive visionaries alongside being diligent scientists, so we have a dedicated section to all their whacky ideas in the "Musings" chamber. Our website is still fairly new, as is our lab, but comeback for updates!"

"I just might. Thank you again."

"No problem, remember you always have a home in the Soliverse."

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