The air you breathe has likely passed through forests, oceans, animals, cities, fires, storms, and other people before reaching you, which means every breath is less private than it feels and more like borrowing from the whole planet
Breathing is the most automatic thing a human body does. Around 20,000 times a day, without instruction or effort, the chest rises and falls. The gesture is so habitual, so personal, that it rarely registers as anything other than a private biological transaction — something happening inside the body, between the body and the air […]
