"Excuse me," said Dorothy, "but did I hear you correctly? You were sitting on your friend the rock, having a conversation with him?" The Elf replied, rather tartly, "You mortals are really something. You're practically deaf, dumb, and blind. In fact, a real deaf or blind mortal probably hears and sees more than a so-called normal one. Most mortals are so caught up with the gaudy sights and loud sounds around them that they do not see or hear the more subtle sights and sounds of nature. A whole words exists of which they are totally unaware." "Are you saying that rocks are alive?" interceded Dorothy. The little Elf shook his head in disbelief. "All of creation is alive. There is no such thing as being /not alive/. If something was dead, it couldn't exist." "What about a dead animal?" said Dorothy. "Or fish? I had a goldfish that I loved very much and, when he died, I was very sad." "You shouldn't have been so sad," said the Elf. "All of creation is pulsating vibrant life energy of which the outer forms are constantly undergoing change, but not one tiny atom of that living energy can be destroyed. Ask any of your scientists if this is not true." "But my goldfish did die," insisted Dorothy. "Any scientist would testify to that." "Of course," replied the Elf. "However, a scientist's understanding of life energy ends with the physical death of the entity under study. The outer appearance of your goldfish would indicate to him that the goldfish had died. But appearances can be deceiving. The scientist knows that the atoms of the goldfish's /dead/ body are still in motion, and will gradually formulate individual chemicals, gases, and minerals as the body decays and returns to the earth. These atoms, you see, will eventually become part of some other living thing, perhaps or a flower or a tree." "Is that what you mean when you say my goldfish is not really dead?" asked Dorothy. "That the atoms of its body are still in motion and will become a part of some other living thing?" "No," replied the Elf. "That's not what I mean, although what you say is true; the atoms of one's body will always be alive somewhere. But these atoms are not any more you than they are a flower or any other thing. They are just the building blocks....