"A thing's 'ultimate place' is its place in the great scheme of things, its quintessential place in the world or the universe. Soul is the place that most centrally and comprehensively identifies a thing — a thing's truest place.
"A thing's ultimate place corresponds to the set of relationships that this thing has with all other things in the world. But obviously, to identify a thing's ultimate place, you couldn't name each and everyone of those relationships, or even a fraction of them. Rather, you use expressions that encapsulate or summarize those relationships, or you note a few of the principal ones.
When we say 'ultimate place' — which is to say, when we are speaking of soul — we are calling attention to the very core or heart of a thing's identity, its decisive meaning or significance, its raison d'etre.
"Keeping in mind that the identity of the soul of a person or thing is always a matter of opinion, here are a few opinion-examples. The soul of humanity is the conscious celebration of the universe's grandeur. The soul of the U.S. Declaration of Independence is the affirmation of universal human equality. The soul of a possible future biocracy is the affirmation of the inalienable rights of all species and all habitats. The soul of Jesus is love, and the soul of the Buddha is emptiness. You might disagree with any of those soul-identifications, but you can see nonetheless that each uses the word soul in the sense of 'ultimate place.'
"Using that definition, every thing has a soul, not just humans, not just animals, but also plants and trees, minerals, geological formations, mountains, rivers, skies, sunshine, planets, galaxies, and all things human-fashioned, including books, buildings, blouses, Buicks, bongos, and ball games. Collectives and categories of things have souls, too. Like the soul of a specific herd of elk. Or the soul of our solar system. Or a whole species, as in the soul of humanity.
"The set of relationships a thing has with all other things is a unique set: each thing occupies a unique place, a particular node in the web of life. Therefore, the soul of each thing is unique.
"The human soul is a person's ultimate place in the more-than-human world.
