Wise Meaning

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4835-4150-1
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 204 Seiten

Uncovering the true nature of the universe is not the goal of astronomer John Thomas's illicit project. It just happens to be the outcome. He believes the discovery has the potential to unite the laws of physics and nature with the fundamental beliefs of all the great religions, providing a simple solution to the mysteries of life.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wise, David

Leseproben

Chapter 1 Present day “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” With a rapid shake of his head John Thomas tried to toss out the unsolicited thought. Such intrusions into his conscious mind had become almost commonplace now that the radio in the old Chevy was not working. And, with a long commute from his home on the outskirts of Tucson, to the Whipple observatory at the top of Mount Hopkins, he liked to use the time to work out personal problems. His problems were actually trivial by the standards of most, but all too often, he would twist them around and blow things out of proportion. John slowed as he approached the Base Camp at the foot of Mount Hopkins. He pulled up next to the guard shack and rolled down the window. The hot desert air rushed in as if he had opened the door to an oven. “Morning George,” he shouted through the shack’s closed window. George, who was sitting at his desk on the other side of the shack, looked up and gave him a nonchalant wave. Instead of getting up and coming over to the window, he looked back down at his logbook and continued to write. After a few moments, he pried his torso, which appeared to be about one meal shy of four hundred pounds, out of the chair and slowly shuffled over to the window. “Morning John,” he said in his deep raspy voice, and in a tone that suggested that he was irritated. “I hope it’s hot enough for ya?” “Yea, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually November,” John replied. “Well, I told you the other night you were going to end up burning in hell, George reminded him. But then this is Tucson you know.” “But it has to be close to a hundred degrees. And it’s only seven-thirty in the morning for God’s sake. According to the Weather Channel all this weird weather is being caused by that huge hurricane down there off the Mexican coast. It’s just been sitting there churning away and pumping all of this hot air up here. They said it’s supposed to move on shore today though.” “That has to be like the fifteenth one this year,” George remarked, his paunchy jowls swaying with each word. “It’s actually only the twelfth,” John corrected him. “But they just keep getting bigger.” John had always been an avid weather buff, a bit unusual for someone living in Tucson where the weather changed about as often as the seasons. He would often spend more time watching the weather than sports. And he would purposely try to annoy his wife Jenny by switching from her program over to the weather whenever she would leave the room. When she returned he would just smile and say, “Sunny again tomorrow honey.” But there had not been much time lately for watching television with the busy schedule of his two daughters. With Mary’s dance classes and Ann’s soccer practice, his evenings, and weekends, had been hectic to say the least. “Well, however many there’s been it’s still a lot more than normal,” George replied. “The weather’s been really weird all year.” “They say it’s because of global warming,” John shot back. “But I don’t believe it. I think there’s a lot more to it than that. If you want my opinion I say all the weird things that have been happening lately are being caused by disruptions in the Earth’s magnetic field.” “I’m not surprised that you would disagree with the experts,” George said in a derogatory tone. “You always have to disagree with everything people say.” “Are you still upset over that cool debate we had on Saturday? You’re just as bad as Jenny.” “Well, maybe you should listen to your wife more often,” George fired back. “She tried to warn you to tone it down, but you wouldn’t listen to her. You had everyone pissed off. Why do you think they all started leaving the party so early? I don’t know what it is with you but after you have a few beers you start talking like a madman.” “Hey, it was my birthday and I was having a good time.” “Well no one else was. And if you weren’t built like Arnold Swartz... whatever his name is, you probably would’ve gotten your ass kicked. I’ll tell you something, if you don’t stop stirring things up like that you probably won’t be around to have a party for your thirty-first birthday.” “Jeez George, I wasn’t trying to make anyone mad. I just like getting people involved in lively discussions.” “Well, when you get as old as I am maybe you’ll learn that you never discuss religion or politics at parties. Especially not at the same time.” “Ok grandpa,” John replied in jest, “I’ll try to remember that, and I’m sorry if I upset you the other night. Now why don’t you just get over it and give me one of those radios so I can get going.” “You know there’s a cold front that’s supposed to move through later today, don’t you?” George inquired as he eyed the old Chevy. “The weather might get nasty up there. Why don’t you take one of the Jeeps? It’s Monday so we won’t need it for visitors.” When bad weather was in the forecast John would typically drive his gas sucking SUV up to the observatory. Although the old Chevy had a better ride, and after traveling the same road nearly every day for four years, it practically knew the way on its own. Although it handled the mountain road fairly well at moderate speeds, it could act more like a sled when the weather turned bad. “I’ll be OK,” John replied, trying to ease George’s concern regarding the winding mountain road, which was treacherous in spots even under ideal conditions. “I have to leave early anyway. Mary has her dance recital tonight and Jenny told me to get home early so we don’t have to rush around to get her there on time.” “Oh yea, Mary was telling me about it on Saturday. She even performed part of her routine for me. I thought it was cute.” “Well it may be cute when you see it for the first time, but it gets a little old after she makes you watch her practice everyday for three months.” “Well tell her I said to break a leg,” George replied with a chuckle that made his whole body jiggle. He then handed John a two-way radio and said, “Well take it easy, and don’t ever start anymore debates while I’m around or I’ll never come over to your place again.” John tossed the radio next to his briefcase on the seat beside him and pulled away just as George slammed the shack’s window shut. John didn’t care much for the routine of stopping at the guard shack every day, even though George was usually a bit friendlier. The requirement to check in and pick up a radio seemed like a waste of time to him. But then he didn’t care much for many of the rules forced on those who traveled up and down Summit road. He did think the new radios were kind of neat though. They had many features that the older ones did not have. One feature he did not care much for, however, was their global positioning system, which allowed George to keep track of everyone’s whereabouts. John squirmed in his seat to get comfortable as his thoughts shifted to his wife, Jenny. She had begun feeling a little ill as he was leaving for work, and he was concerned that she might be pregnant. Although he loved his two daughters, Mary who was 9 and Ann 7, he had no interests in dealing with a newborn again. And Jenny was a devout Catholic, so she would never consider an abortion. John believed in God too, but in an aimless sort of way. Jenny had made numerous attempts over the years to persuade him to commit to Catholicism, but he always countered them with apathy. To John, committing ones self to a single religion was a sign of weakness. He would tell her that it causes individuals to develop narrow-minded attitudes. And committing to a specific denomination within the Christian faith made even less sense to him. He attended church on Sundays with Jenny and the girls to portray a family image. However, after staying up late most Saturday nights, he commonly slept right through mass. Although there were many things about John’s character that troubled Jenny, it was this lack of commitment to the Catholic faith that caused her the most concern. John’s devotions were to his job and his family, and usually in that order. John landed his job at the Whipple Observatory after graduating from the University of Arizona with a doctorate degree in astronomy. Fortunately, at the time of his graduation, the University had been in the process of putting together a team of astronomers for a new project. The goal of the project was to create a three dimensional map of the known universe. At the core of the sophisticated endeavor was a new, and powerful, multiple mirror telescope they all called the MMT. Other astronomers used the MMT to gather images of the immense galaxy formations throughout the universe, while it was John’s responsibility to catalog the collected data. He would sit at a computer the entire day, sorting through reams of data files. At the end of the day, he would upload the formatted data to the university’s supercomputer where it could be analyzed by the project...