Well it’s been a fun ride everyone. Just like the coolest roller coaster ever — full of ups and downs, twists and turns. After nearly five years as your science writer, this is my last column for the Town Crier.
What was the point? What did I hope you got out of it (other than I love to end columns with sarcastic jokes at Donald Trump)? I think the answer is to live every moment with the same level of curiosity and wonder as you did when you were a child contemplating what the stars are made of the first time you saw them.
While we already figured that question out, it doesn’t take away from their beauty and splendor. In other words, never prejudge or draw a conclusion just because it gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Just because life doesn’t always have a Hollywood ending, in fact it rarely does, doesn’t mean the story was not worth being told. Care about the process (the journey, if you will), not simply the result and whether or not that result benefits you and those like you.
The fact that everything is finite does not take away from its value. Quite the opposite, it adds value. I can’t stress this point strongly enough.
As I have mentioned previously, my inspiration for writing this column has always been my mom. The fact that I don’t see her smile or can no longer hold her puts everything in context for me. She was part of a larger story that does not need extra scenes after the final credits.
If I were to see her walking down the street one day, what could I possibly do or say to her that she did not already know, even as she took her last breath and her heart took its last beat? Nothing.
Knowing this fact and sharing it with you gives me an inner peace that matches that of anyone who can only find it through supernatural beliefs past or present.
The analogy I can use is that science is the driver and nature is the road. Science is obligated to follow anywhere the road takes us.
Just when you think you’ve got the road figured out, it throws a curve, always keeping you on your toes making sure nothing is taken for granted. That’s why the two go hand in hand so well and always will.
Knowing that at the most fundamental of levels everything — time, space, you, me, your favorite pet, insects, mammals, trees, and even inanimate objects — are all part of an interconnected whole will always be breathtaking. It takes a little humility and it may shake your beliefs on where you stand on the totem pole but, once get there, I promise the next time you look up at the night sky to gaze at the stars it will seem just as wondrous and beautiful as it did when you were a child ... perhaps even more so.