From my earliest memories come tales of people, great people, who have been given that one, bright and shining moment of true clarity and vision. An instant where all else in the brain is blotted out and only a small voice comes piercing through accomapnied by the sound of synapses thundering as a bolt of lightning. Perhaps the first ones came from the bible stories my grandpa read to me of Moses and the Burning Bush or Paul on the road to Damascus. Later they came from reading the lives of people like Curie or Pasteur and even later the great minds of this century. Leo Szilard literally saw the splitting of the atom as he walked along the street observing people moving between lights and intersections. He had that one moment when all was made clear and although others would have come to it eventually, Szilard saw it in a vision with that one bright and shining moment of true clarity. Or Richard Feynman, another great physicist, began his Nobel Prize winning work in quantum mechanics after observing a plate thrown frisbee-like across a room. One bright and shining moment that changed history and science forever. I always figured that each of us was entitled to one in a lifetime at least...even if we didn't understand it or put it to use. I had never had one, until last night............ Something woke me at about 4 AM and as I came awake, I felt it again. I struggled to get to my feet and as I did, again I felt the pain. I realized that the pain came from what felt like a gas cramp of unbelievable proportion. The next time it hit I was doubled over in complete anguish. And it was there in the midst of that searing, white hot pain, that my moment finally came to me. The thoughts that had been in my mind were blocked completely by the pain and instead I heard that sharp and piercing voice of crystalline clarity and it spoke the truth as I had never heard the truth spoken before. It spoke not of religion or science or of things undiscovered and yet it's truth was the equal of those that were spoken to Szilard or Feynman. Struggling to stand, the shrill bell-like voice spoke not to Moses or Paul, but to ME! If you don't get to the bathroom in ten seconds you're going to shit yourself. I guess that our moments of truth are somehow tied to our station in life or something. Although it wasn't earth shattering or history changing, it was, at least, a moment of complete truth and clarity of vision. But I have to admit, I was hoping for something more.............On the plus side, I did make it to the bathroom!
