The Day the Earth Stood Still

For me, after seeing  "The day the earth stood still", I was never quite the same about any invaders, space or aliens.  I could never figure out what all the commotion was about.  My drunk uncle has done plenty more strange and dangerous things around us than a flying space ship could ever do.  There was a day in my life when after that moment, I was completely different.  I am fortunate because there are two days that I look back on as truly pivotal in  my walk forward.  Even though they are not seemingly related, enlightenment is a step to further enlightenment. 

I had just sat through a lecture by Dr. Mike Sweeney about IgE initiation in graft-host rejection scenarios when I started to laugh.  Luckily I was now walking to my car.  I laughed out loud, I threw up my arms and declared to the universe, "This is great, all I have to do is sit there and just let it soak in."  I was actually skipping.  I had not skipped in a few years  and as the exact rhythm and agility of skipping returned I moved faster and faster.  I was still laughing and I was now skip running.  The sun was brighter than I ever remembered.  The January air was crisper than when I got up that morning.  This air tasted "sweet" not like sugar but the emotion of "sweet".  Knowledge no longer had to be jammed into my head.  I did not have to concentrate, it was just the opposite.  All I had to do was accept it and it flowed in.  The new stuff did not flow as much as it was sucked in by the vastness of billions of chemical interactions just waiting to be fired off.  (What a feeling) My grades were only slightly better after that hour but learning was now painless.  It took energy to keep my mind open and receptive and I no longer wanted anything to interfere with learning.  It could be exhausting.  Reading was now more interesting than TV, listening had become a drug that I must have.  Old people's stories became worth all the time spent listening.  How a butterfly lives through a migration across this vast country is now important.  Why I acquired the Mumps twice instead of just once now had a mechanism to be investigated.

The earth did not stand still that day but time did.  It was redefined with an subroutine for knowledge, not yet a need for understanding, that would take a lifetime but just to free up the mind and soak it all in.  It does not get any better than that.  Here I am thirty five years later and I remember that lightening bolt like it was yesterday.  I still sit back and laugh whenever knowledge just gets sucked into my brain synapses.  I am wore down now and the stress and aggravation of life has weakened my ability to keep the door to my mind open.  Now, most of the time, God props the door open and when the sucking begins, I just sit back and laugh.