My name is D.W.Rambler. And I am a researcher. I work in a dark laboratory in the basement of a large university. Most people think that I live a life of strict routine. I come to work at 8:56am, have lunch at 12:38pm, and leave sometime after them (6pm). They don't know what I am researching, but they do know that I am a researcher, and I'm not really into lecturing; I usually work alone, and I am always focusing on my PhD.
They have no idea what my thesis is about.
Actually I don't really have a routine. I occasionally come into Uni at 8:56am. That's the only time that they notice me; otherwise I spend my time at the laboratory for days and realise - Shit, I've been here for days, I need to go home and get clean clothes! Or I manage to remember to eat around the time that the canteen is about to close around 12:45pm. Otherwise I am invisible. Even my mentor, my professor, has forgotten my existence. The only reason why I am still here is that I have funding from my uncle's inheritance that the Dean is happy to receive and keep me on.
I am searching the Holy Grail. And I think I have found it.
My interest in the Holy Grail started not from the Monty Python film (altho' I love the sketch with the black knight in that movie), but my father's quest to seek the Grail, for he believed that it existed and was the key to understanding life, and the universe. (My father was an archeologist and an anthropologist at Pembroke College, Cambridge). As a child I would listen to his tales about the wonders of the Grail, how it had traveled from what we know today as Jordan to Egypt, to Turkey, and was now in modern day Libya. I have traveled to all these places with my uncle's money to follow in my father's footsteps. But I still could not find the Grail....
Until I decided to take a break, and took a skiing/writing/retreat holiday in Innsbruck last month.
I have friends who work for the University there, Marcus and Garvy. They are anthropologists and geologists writing a thesis on the separation of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon in the earlier parts of our evolution; they asked me over to look at a sample of soil layers that had some organic (possibly wooden) materials found in the glacier that they bore from a piece of Tundra in western Estonia. I was happy to take a sample back with me to London to run some tests on the piece of organic material. After all Marcus and his team had helped me out on many occasions. And they knew that I was looking for the Grail, which according to legend is made from organic material.
Once back in my basement laboratory I ran all kinds of tests: mass spectrometry, PCRs, physico-chemical analysis... I was even able to reproduce the organic material and test it's effects on laboratory mice, and today I have analysed all the the results only to reveleal something disturbing.
The material that I discovered, which I shall call K, is more powerful than nuclear power. K has a unique property: when mixed with water and administered to dead animals, they gain life. However, when mixed with oil, and administered to live animals, it kills them instantly. This property of K also works with monocellular organisms. It can even replicate "inanimate" objects, such as viruses, only to eradicate them when applying the oil-based solution. In short, K can create and destroy.
I have found Brama and Shiva -- the gods of creation and of destruction.
Dear readers, I am at a loss right now... what do I do with my discovery? This knowledge that I hold in my hands today can be used to bring loved ones back to life, and at the same time it can kill terrorists, our enemies at times of war.... What if I publish my findings? The military will surely take all my papers, and create more K, hide the secret formula so that our enemies cannot manufacture it. But yet, if I don't publish my findings I won't be able to save lives, eradicate disease such as HIV, Ebola, and many more. I can save innocent lives. Rid cancer, bring smiles to people's faces, for no one needs to die anymore... Water-based K solution is the elixir of life... and yet, its shadow, Oil-based K, has the power to destroy many more.
Marcus and Garvey know that I have the sample from the Tundra. Sooner or later they are going to ask me what it was. I can lie to them and say it was only a piece of wood, or a piece of bone from an ancient mammoth. I can lie for now, but for how long can this last? I can take my secret to my grave with me, but, sooner or later, someone may discover the properties of K.
K is powerful. It has the power to create and to destroy....
I want to believe that there is a God. I want to believe that humans are righteous, and that they will use K to save lives. To do good. I want to believe that even after I am gone K will be used in the way that God intended for us to use it... I want to believe.
Today, dear readers, I am going to publish my findings on K, because I believe that humans are good. I want to save lives, not to destroy. In the beginning all I wanted to do was to seek the truth; to find out if there really was a Holy Grail. I am a researcher, I want to find out about things. I am not God, and yet today I have to make that fateful decision....
(Postscript: today's post is dedicated to one of the people I would like to meet in heaven: Albert Einstein. In 1939 Albert wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, ending his life-long pacifism, asking him to begin a nuclear weapons program. Albert heard that the Germans had split the atom, and knew that the next step would be for them to develop an atom bomb. Albert, a German-born theoretical scientist, was Jewish; a brilliant mind of our time, but nonetheless very unwelcome in his home country at the time. Albert later regretted writing the letter to Roosevelt when he heard of the massive destruction after two atom bombs were dropped on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). He said: "I could burn my fingers that I wrote that letter to President Roosevelt." Albert was burdened by his actions till the day that he died. All Albert wanted to do was to seek answers to the universe, not destroy lives. He was a peace loving dreamer who was in touch with his inner child...
"God does not play dice with the universe." -- Albert Einstein.
Albert, we thank you for your inspiration. And no one blames you for speaking up, and seeking the truth. DW.R.)
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10 comments:
DWR, what the hell is going on? I am floored by what I just read. I thought you worked in a business firm. Now your doing research for days on end? What is up with that?
OK so I will go with this idea that you are a researcher, and you have found K. I question K. What is it, and why is oil and water such powerful fuels for K? And how can you bring back dead things? How long were they dead? Oh please tell me more. Very interesting this is indeed.
The Holy Grail is such a great topic to study; I did not know that you were looking for it? How can one help?
Oh come on dear, I am so waiting for a reply to this post. It could be one of the most important things I have ever read, and I still have to wait. PLEASE, with sugar on top, tell a ninja more. I will send you some Faygo.
sorry. back from long lunch. got stuck into writing my next post.
funny you should ask for a comment, coz I received an email from my friend after reading this post: my first (and probably only) work of fiction on this blog.
The other day I had a thought: I wondered what it would be like to develop and refine missile guiding technology, or to develop a strain of small pox that is air borne? I wonder what goes thru the mind of someone developing a WMD?
And that's when I remembered Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein was a truth seeker. He wanted to know the meaning of life; he asked many questions and was very focused on seeking the truth. Many Jungian psychologists classified him as an introverted, introspective thinker. Myers-Briggs classed him as an INTP (pls look at the bottom of my site telling you my "blogginality". You see, I too am an INTP. Altho' I've been tested and have known this all along). I wanted to imagine how Albert would have felt after hearing that the truth he sought distroyed so many lives...
"Oh my god, it wasn't meant to be this way... I just wanted to know what would happen if an atom was split, but someone actually went and did it, and now we have created evil. What have I done..."
That was what I heard when I tried to see thru Albert's mind.
Anyway, as you know this is fiction so I will try and explain the metaphors to the best of my ability.
Water: we need water for survival. We are composed of nearly 60% of water, and the rest organic material. Without water we will die. Scientists have actually managed to "freeze dry" mice sperm and bring it back to "life" by adding water?! So water + organic material = life. That's Y the dead animals come to life.
Oil: well, look at the world today. Many wars are fought over oil. Oil => War => Death. Who creates war? Us. We are made from organic material.
Shadow properties of oil and water: simply because oil and water do not mix (unless there is an emulsion. In this case there is not)
Holy Grail: truth. Answers to the universe. I could have chosen Alchemy as a metaphore, but the legend of the holy grail says that it is made from wood. Drink from it, and you will have eternal life and have all the answers that you seek.
I suppose I wanted people to think about the consequences of their action by expanding their imagination and viewing life thru the eyes of Albert...
Just imagine what it would be like to work for Lockheed Martin developing new, more efficient land mines or missiles? How would you feel if you saw images of wounded children who lost their limbs because you were able to "refine" the design of your brain child?
I think my heart would ache, even tho my urges to seek the truth remained... this situation would be a real dilema for me, and I do not know how I would react. Albert was a truth seeker, neither more, nor less.
You sly dog. I was all excited that you were an undercover researcher, James Bond like, or maybe Indiana Jones. Umm but what a find K would be right?! I see where you were coming from, and how great of you to actually take the time to think about the oil/water situation and add it in there. THe idea of the Holy Grail has alwyas intrested me to some extent, while digging to the center of the earth is more in line with my idea of adventure, either would be cool.
It would be very hard to be in a position like you gave us. I would be at a loss I do think. To seek truth is all well and good, but I then quesiton who are you seeking truth for? If your answer is yourself, that is fine, if your answer is for the good of human kind I would have trouble believing that - depending on what truth your looking for though. Again you went really deep here, I like that. But you had me fooled for the majority of the day. Tuchay (I wish I could spell, and that word in particular).
OH and I am sorry for the slight demand for a reply, but I was fooled, you got me. I apoligize for blowing up. Bad me.
I will smoke a boll and think about it.
actually, I was *amazed* that people actually believed me! I was hoping that most people would have got the idea when I mentioned albert einstein and his predicament.. But alas, I am a mere face in a suit... and today I am researching "knowledgemanagement" and "regulatory information" on network securty specific to pharma industries (this is fact)
*yawn*
there are many hints in there that would tell you it's fiction:
1) I live in Japan, not London,
2) It's not skiing season yet. At least not in Austria.
3) It would take more than a month to anaylse a material by myself AND replicate it, test it on animals.... pharma companies spend 3 years doing that sort of stuff
4) My friends are Marcus and Garvey?? Marcus Garvey?? Feedom fighter from Jamaica???
Cummon, has to be fiction, right?
I did pick up on a few hints, such as the simple fact you only called it K; and the way it was worded - that made me skeptical, but who knows what you really do? And I am not on the up and up to know what the weather conditions are anywere outside of Wisconsin. I have been keeping a very close eye on the snow base on all hills in the state, and it is just about time to hit the slopes.
Oh and I for some reason was under the impresson that the sample K was given to you a long while back, as I know how long such research would take. So I just assumed you have been in the lab all this time. Look I was fooled, and since I only know you from what you right, I was not sharp enough to pick up on it. Sorry. I feel foolish... am I the only one who fell for her sly trick? woe is me...
Oh who cares, that post rocked and so do you DWR for writing it. So I got a bit caught up in the post and my mind wanted to believe it was true, so it was in my world. Everybody should get to live a day in my world, actually we should all be able to share worlds, how much we could really learn.
don't worry, you were not the only one fooled. even people who *actually* know me in person were a bit confused... sometimes I like to play little tricks, to see who is awake. at least you were awake enuf to go, huh? what's this post all about?? :) keep thinking, keep blogging.
Peace
It is good to have some one there to keep you on your toes, thanks for that DWR!
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