Exceptionalism

One of the ideas that floored me back in ninth grade was the idea that Europe might not be a contintent. After all, I grew up with seven continents. But the argument goes as follows: there is no reason why Europe should be a continent. It's on the same continental plate as the rest of Asia, there are no geographic features to differentiate it from the rest of asia, and in terms of terrain, it blends in to the Asian steppes pretty well..or at least just as well as all the other parts of Asia. The reason why Europe gets to be a continent is that it was European who drew the maps way back when, and they felt the need to have their own place. Somehow living in just another part of Asia (or Eurasia as my history teacher used to call it) isn't as good as having a continent of your own. Basically its a case of exceptionalism: the Europeans wanted to be sepparate from the Asian peoples, so they made Europe its own continent.
Well, here another idea. What are you? You're a living organism made up of other living organisms: cells. Those cells are made up of organelles. Now, cells are alive but organelles aren't. Why is that? There is no reason why there should be a difference except that we have decided that it is so. Placing the barrier between life and non-life between cells and organelles keeps it well away from us. After all, if it weren't there, organelles could be alive....or cells could be not alive, and if a cells could not be living then you could too, right? It sounds crazy, but think about it. What are organelles but a series of chemical compunds linked together. What are cells but a series of organelles linked together...meaning that in the end a cell is a much larger group of compunds. What are you but a group of cells tied together, and thus a reeeeaaallly large group of compunds. Maybe we put the boundary there to sepparate ourelves from non-life in the same way that the Europeans made Europe its own continent in order to make themselves sepparate. In reality, maybe there isn't much of a difference at all.
I'm not saying that there's no such thing as life...just that this is a kind of wacky idea that I think people should think about--if for no othere reason, then because it gives you a headache. And we all need that kind of headache every once in a while.