Salt
Serving and learning together, our newsletters twin and twine water, business and life. Over the years, it has been fulfilling, especially when the often-overlooked ubiquitous aspects of the three are highlighted together. They tend to intersect beautifully to allow for countless eye-opening perspectives. So, on this fine day and with these scant words, what savory awareness leaps to mind?
See Salt
Over 97% of the water on earth is salt water. Like me, you have probably lived your whole life knowing that the sea is salt and perhaps never really considered how much salt that really is. Ponder not really seeing salt for a moment. Isn’t that interesting? Even more fascinating is that when I share with you how much salt is in the oceans you will struggle to comprehend it as I have.
A cubic meter of fresh water weighs a ton. About 3.5% of the weight of sea water comes from the dissolved salts. So, a cubic meter of salt water weighs a little more than 2,000 pounds with about 3.5% or over 70 lbs of salt in it. Imagine now how many cubic meters of water are in the ocean. Cumulative salt mass in the ocean is estimated to weigh 38.5 quadrillion tons. Such a large total!
How did it get to be this way? Bit by bit, rocks from land eroded over time from rainfall’s impact. Ions dissolved into the water and found their way into rivers and ultimately into the oceans. Highly common ions are sodium and chloride. These two together make up salt. That’s such a lucky tangle for us.
Peppered With Salt
Got a business meeting to rush to in the snow? Hopefully salt has been strewn to reduce the freezing point of water, melt the snow, and give you more traction. Of course, there is slower and less traffic. According to The Salt Storage Handbook, a 300 mile 2-lane highway expecting just 6 storms per season and assuming 4 applications per storm requires 1,800 tons of salt. How much is used in the U.S. so we can get from A to B? It is about 20 million tons sprinkled on the roads - annually!
Got olfactory sensory neurons decreasing as you age and causing you to lose flavor? Help that tiny area inside your nose meet its craving by adding sea salt – a nice seasoning. Senior adults live tastefully this way. But how much salt do you add? Your body only needs about 1-2 grams of salt a day. (Okay, technically it is the sodium in salt that is needed.) Without sodium via salt, you can be lethargic and confused. Perhaps with some salt you stand a little taller?
Salt Treatments
Did you know that if you look closely at The Last Supper you will see that Judas spilled a salt shaker? That’s bad luck for it invites the devil to cause more trouble. So, blind that little devil by throwing a pinch of salt over your left shoulder where he sits. Clearly, we need seminars about long-term thinking because superstitions are living truths guiding too many of us in business and life today. By the way, what are your superstitions? A little time and acute observation will reveal one at work for you, I am sure. I am a consultant after all - my view on that is unshakable.
When global super powers met to restrain themselves, they called it SALT. When an amusing Harvard Law alumnus started a popular hedge fund conference, he called it SALT. A military report will include size, activity, location, and time. Interns are students actively leading today. Salt is everywhere!
Where would we be without salt? Probably late, stuck on the right shoulder of the road, freezing and hunched over, and with the devil in our ear. Stay spry and light today!
Here's to you and your awesome future.
Until then, keep your feet on the board and keep riding your wave!
Robert J. Khoury
CEO Agile Rainmakers