THE
BLUE BOX (Recycled Ideas)
by Don Cox
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There's an old Persian folk tale about three Princes who
set out to find a place called Serendip, and along the way
ran into all sorts of unexpected good fortune. Sometimes
the shades of these gentlemen drop things in my path. I
think they must have some sort of agreement with the Globe,
that's where most of my unexpected good things come from.
There are coincidences in life, and there's serendipity,
but what I've stumbled across is pushing it too far. One
or more of the Princes must have a hand in it. Let me tell
you about it, and you be the judge.
What do most of you do when you get up in the morning?
Have a cup of coffee of course, it kick-starts the heart
and gets the day going. Have you ever stopped to consider
when this habit commenced to achieve the universality it
enjoys today? It was back in the 40s, about the time that
the first atomic bomb was detonated. What has that got to
do with coffee? Well, just listen to this! The Globe has
an article on the research at the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre in India. They have found that mice given caffeine
survive otherwise lethal doses of radiation. There's a pretty
obvious conclusion to be drawn from a devastating fact like
than. It's obvious to any thinking person that back in the
40s after the atomic bomb appeared on the scene, our Jungian
racial collective consciousness, (whose name is Charles)
suddenly jolted awake and said to its collective inner self
"Sheesh! I had better do something to protect the human
collectivity. Hmm! I'll get them all hooked on caffeine,
that will partially solve it at least"
I had filed this in the back of my mind until recently,
when there was a news item about a shipment of plutonium
being trucked from the southern U.S. to Sault Ste. Marie,
where it was immediately flown to Chalk River for testing
as a reactor fuel. I'll bet most of you think there was
a truck load of the stuff don't you. Well, there was 120
grams, which is maybe a tablespoon full. So I'll bet most
of you think it's terribly radioactive and poisonous don't
you. There was an op ed article in the Globe on this topic,
could anything have been more serendipitous. Plutonium is
not very radioactive at all and, said the article, (are
you ready for this), it's about as toxic as caffeine.
When I saw that, I realized that at least two of the Princes
of Serendip have come looking for me. They were carrying
a blue box full of notes. I guess that was a sign, so I
will be writing more or less regular articles from now on.
Bluebox ©2001 Don Cox
Website ©2001 OttawaWEB
