Nathan Hale graduated from Yale College in 1773. After graduation he became a schoolmaster in East Haddam. The next year he got a better job at an academy in New London. A year later the American Revolution began. After the battles of Lexington and Concord, two of Hale’s brothers joined he Connecticut militia. Nathan enlisted a few weeks later on July 6, 1775, after the Battle of Bunker Hill which resulted in a stalemate, which lasted until the British evacuated Boston in March of 1776. He was transferred to New York with other troops. The battle of Brooklyn Heights at the end of August 1776 life the British in control of Long Island. Washington and his troops were holed up in Manhattan and badly in need of reliable information about the opposing forces. Washington began recruiting spies. Hale, who had been in the army for over a year and had yet to see any action, decided to volunteer.

It turned out that he wasn’t a very good spy. He traveled to Norwalk, Connecticut and crossed Long Island Sound, leaving his uniform, commission, and official papers behind. Dressed as a schoolmaster in a plain brown suit, he landed in Huntington, Long Island. Instead of gathering information and returning to Washington, however, he asked too many questions and soon aroused suspicion. In a conversation with a British agent posing as an American sympathizer, he revealed his mission and the British authorities arrested him. He was brought to General Howe’s headquarters and condemned to death. On September 22, he was taken to artillery park and was hanged from a tree. The British buried his body nearby.

We were taught that he met his death with great resolution and composure and that his last words were, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” The words are from Joseph Addison’s play “Cato,” and though the play was seen by Hale and his friends at Yale, there is no reason to think that he spoke them at his execution. Over the years, as his story was told and retold, history transformed Hale from an obscure and unsuccessful spy into a symbol of selfless sacrifice in service of his country. Statues were erected. Since there were no photographs, sculptors created idealized portraits of heroic young men.

So, for what it is worth, Nathan Hale never actually lived at the Hale Homestead, built by his parents in 1776, after he had left their home. He probably never actually said the famous quote now often attributed to him.

Now, molecular scientists are teaching us that even if he had made the famous quote, the notion that a human being has only life is not technically correct. I’m not talking here about reincarnation, or some mysterious cat-like ability to escape death, but rather about the fact that we humans are not actually singular beings. Our bodies are actually entire ecosystems of microorganisms. We have at least as many bacteria inside us as we have body cells. They are as much a part of us as our blood cells and nerve cells. Medical researchers have discovered that bacteria are very important in overall health. Our gut bacteria, for example, produce substances that communicate with our brains. Researchers now believe that the human nervous system arose not to give direction to different body parts, but rather so our bodies could communicate with microbes.

We are made of a lot of different species of bacteria. The average human being hosts over 150 different species of bacteria on our hands alone. In one study it was determined that the left and right hands of the same person had only 17 percent of identical species. Bacteria on the hands of different persons have bacteria that match only 13 percent of the time. In all researchers found 4,742 different species on the surfaces of their subjects’ hands. We could not survive without these bacteria. We are literally thousands of lives, and not just one.

Science has come up with a new classification for this ecosystem of microorganisms. According to a book by Peter Wohlleben, these complex systems of interdependent microbes and larger beings are referred to as holobionts (holo meaning “whole” and bios meaning “life”). I’m just beginning to wrap my head around Earth being populated by holobionts. It sounds like some kind of science-fiction fantasy, but in fact it is the nature of life itself. Humans are not unique in our hosting of communities of microbes. It is true of all other animals and it is also true of plants as well. Wohlleben is a forester and writes about trees, which are also multicellular species. Every multicellular organism - trees and farm animals and human beings - is a unique ecosystem containing thousands of species of microorganisms. We are not individuals, but rather systems of multiple life forms. We are holobionts.

Because the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies are dependent upon one another and because our lives are dependent on the microorganisms, we cannot survive without one another, but the lifespan of a microorganism is very short. During a human lifetime, the populations of microorganisms are born, live, and die over and over again. They reproduce quickly. Wash your hands with antibacterial soap and thousands of bacteria die, but they reproduce so quickly that it doesn’t take them long to go back to the way they were, according to a study by Noah Fierer, Micah Hamady, Christian Lauber, and Rob Knight.

It is a whole new way of thinking about human individuality. We are not one, but rather many, even when we consider ourselves independently from each other. And we know because of the work of other scientists that we cannot survive alone. We are dependent upon other humans and a network of relationships for survival. Human babies can’t live without the care and nurture of other humans. This is also true of human adults. We are interconnected with others.

I doubt that I will cease to think of myself as an individual. The concept of being a holobiont is a challenging one. But apparently, I don’t have “only one life” even if I learned a mistaken notion about an obscure unsuccessful spy who became an American icon. On the other hand, I can’t think of a quote that might be better. “I regret that I have so many lives,” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.