Check out links at end of each chapter...
Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles
Chapter 1 - May 14, 2009 - Tutu Troubles
Chapter 2 – Oct. 07, 2009 – About My Friends
Chapter 3 – Oct. 15, 2009 – The Inheritance
Chapter 4 – Oct. 22, 2009 – Finding Answers
Chapter 5 – Oct. 29, 2009 – A New Friend
Chapter 6 – Nov. 05, 2009 – A Treasure Map
Chapter 7 – Nov. 12, 2009 – A Treasure Hunt
Chapter 8 – Nov. 19, 2009 – And Beyond
Chapter 9 – Nov. 26, 2009 – Lost Data
Chapter 10 – Dec. 3, 2009 – Found Data
Chapter 11 – Dec. 10, 2009 – The Castle Cellar
Chapter 12 – Dec. 17, 2009 – Forever Never Ending
RosFrankie and Beyond
Chapter 11
The Castle Cellar
‘It sounds like’ Méabh says, ‘you have everything pretty well under control.’
‘Yes, we are getting there,’ Lucy informs her, ‘although I am a bit concerned about finding my Flying Machine.’
‘Your Flying Machine. What does it look like and when did you last see it?’
‘Well, about five hundred years ago I gave it Leonardo da Vinci and he misplaced it.’
‘Well, really, ‘Lucy says sympathetically, ‘It really wasn’t his fault. He was great to work with. He could do everything and knew lots of stuff and things. He was a Great Thinker. And because he was really smart and asked a lot of questions, the authorities kept threatening to arrest him and put him in jail.’
‘Arrest him! For being too smart?’ Mary-Ann-Drusillda’s ears quickly pick up on this concept and she did not like the sound of it at all! ‘Maybe, ‘she thinks to herself, ‘I should just go back to school and act really dumb.’ She thinks long and hard about this idea and then decides, ‘No. It just can’t be done. Acting dumb is way too difficult. I’m not smart enough to be able to act that dumb.’
‘Yes, arrest him!’ Lucy repeats, ‘It was a terrible time for him. It was almost as bad as that time 700 years earlier when they had Library Wars in Alexandria and Pergamon because they didn’t even have television yet and they had no other hobbies except going to war. Terrible Times those all were!’
‘Library Wars!’ I say, ‘You mean Libraries, those places of quiet study, went to war with each other?’
‘Yes, they even burned down the Library at Alexandria and so much, oh so much, data was lost. Very painful times those were,’ Lucy continued, ‘And four hundred years ago was a terrible time for Leonardo. He didn’t want the authorities to destroy the Flying Machine so he gave it to a neighbor to hide. This neighbor, who was a very very old man, moved from the old neighborhood soon afterwards because he was also afraid he would get arrested. I can only assume that this neighbor, whom Leonardo described as pale and thin and serious with eyes that have big black shadows and someone who never smiles, took the Flying Machine with him when he left, but history has no record of him.’
credit: Google images
Méabh makes a strange little moan and groan and opens her eyes and sits up in the mud bog. ‘Can you describe this Flying Machine?’ she asks Lucy.
Lucy gives an extraordinarily detailed description of the machine.
Copyright 1495 Leonardo Da Vinci
‘Darn it!’ Méabh mumbles quietly to herself, ‘Trouble is But’s middle name!’
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask. I am very concerned. It just is not like Méabh to be so unenthusiastic about things and stuff.
‘I really just don’t want to go back down into that dark, dreary, damp cellar!’ Méabh answers.
‘Well, then don’t! Don’t go down into the cellar if you don’t want to. Why would you?’ I ask her.
‘Because I can’t possibly ever pass up a really good adventure,’ Méabh answers.
‘What adventure?’ I ask.
Finally Méabh pulls herself out of her slumbering position and pulls herself out of the mud bog and pulls herself out of her funk. Mud bogs really are a cure-all for everything. She loudly and firmly and bossily and bold-as-brass announces, ‘The Adventure of Helping Lucy find her lost Flying Machine. I have seen it some where among all the stuff and things which are lying around down in the Castle Cellar. I never knew what it was so I just always called it THE THING in the cellar. It’s just one of many THINGS in the cellar. I hope I can find it again. It’s not easy finding THINGS in the Castle Cellar.’
And so, quick as a rabbit, we are all off to explore the Castle Cellar.
On the way, Mary-Ann-Drusillda does some quick math calculations in her head trying to figure out how old But might be. When she gets the number, her eyes kinda bug out of her head. ‘Oh,’ she thinks to herself, ‘I think maybe I should do a little less math and do a little more philosophy. The numbers are never wrong and philosophy is a very fudgy thought process. Philosophy is easy to fiddle with even when one does not know how to fiddle. Philosophy teaches us that age does not really matter. But the numbers are never wrong. Can But really be that old? Oh dear. Oh, dear, I think I am a bit befuddled.‘
And so she is. A bit befuddled, that is. But not for long. Befuddled is usually a symptom of not-being-true-to-oneself. Mary-Ann-Drusillda starts to count the grains of sand as we walk along the path to the castle. Before she gets to 1,534,792, she is back to being just good old Mary-Ann-Drusillda who knows that the numbers are never wrong.
Creak.
Creak.
Creaky creak creak.
Every one of our footsteps produces ominous sounds which ricochet and echo down the empty halls, reverberating off of the solid stone walls which never absorb, never submit and never end but instead curve and continue and challenge and frighten us. We are the curious surveyors of the Castle Cellar.
‘BUT!’ Méabh yells as loud as she can. The sound ricochets and echoes and bounces and doubles back and hits our ears as the sound of a bass drum being pounded within inches of our ears. We expect this sound but it is still painful nevertheless. Méabh must yell because there simply is no other way to find someone who might be in the cellar. The huge cellar with twisted stone stairways, and doors leading to other doors which lead to other stairways which lead to other rooms with other doors leading to other stone stairways. Leading us everywhere and to anywhere except to the door through which we had originally entered the cellar. In all the years in which Méabh has been exploring this maze of stonework and moss and creaky sounds and foggy patches which may or may not be ghosts, she has never once left the cellar by the same door through which she had entered it. Except that once when she was thirteen years old and was determined to enter and leave by the same door. Then she had opened the door, stepped inside the door and then immediately turned around and left through the same door. She had never even taken her hand off of the door handle. Méabh does NOT trust what the cellar can do to ones mind. The tricks it plays. She always manages to find her way out again but never through the same door by which she had entered.
‘Rotten cellar,’ she mumbles softly. Very softly. Still the sound ricochets and echoes and bounces and doubles back and hurts our ears. Me, Méabh, Lucy and Mary-Ann-Drusillda. And, somewhere, down one of the long hallways, or through one of the many doors, or up or down one of the many stairways leading to other stairways, and into one of the many uncharted rooms of dubious existence, the sound of Méabh’s yell also ricochets and echoes and bounces and doubles back and hurts the ears of But.
‘WHAT?’ he shouts. The sound ricochets and echoes and bounces and doubles back and hurts the ears of the current Castle Cellar surveyors. Our ears.
When Méabh’s ears stop ringing, she yells loudly to the voice in the dark coming around corners she can not see, ‘THE THING.’
That is all she has to say. But, the butler who has been at the Castle for more years than Méabh has lived, or her parents lived, or their parents before them, knows exactly what Méabh wants. But, not having been privy to the conversation with Lucy in the mud bog, he does not know why Méabh wants THE THING. Before he finds it and before he manages to find her, he thinks of many reasons why Méabh might want THE THING which his friend had given him so many years ago. A thing which even But does not know what it is or why it is or why Leo thought it was so important. But Leo was an artist so it was okay if he was a little strange because most humans don’t mind an artist being a little strange. Not like they mind a banker or a policeman or a chef being a little strange. But But always likes his curiosity to be satisfied. He is most curious as to why Méabh wants THE THING. Most curious indeed. In fact, he can not ever figure out why anyone would ever want THE THING. It is a strange thing which seems to have no purpose. No purpose at all. Until now.
We are the current group of Castle Cellar surveyors. We follow Méabh very closely, each holding hands with one another. Lucy clings tightly on my nose. Her eyes open wide. Not that we are afraid. No, we are really too curious to be afraid. But we aren’t stupid either. Lucy never leaves the security of my nose. Well, maybe we are a little afraid. We go up twisty stairs which lead us down. We go down twisty stairs which lead us through. We go through doors which lead us to more doors which eventually lead us up again. Up and up until we reach the bottom. At one point, we gently and carefully tip toe around the tight edges of a bottomless pit. ‘Once,’ Méabh whispers to us, ‘Years ago when I was young, I threw a stone down there to see how long it would take until I heard it hit bottom. It has not hit yet.’
‘Would it make a sound if you were not here to hear it?’ Mary-Ann-Drusillda asks, practising philosophising.
Méabh points to a humming sound coming from a small indentation in the stone wall. ‘But and I have put a tape recorder there so that we can always check. We have not heard the stone hit bottom yet, but we have heard many other strange noises.’
‘What kind of noises?’ I ask her.
‘The kind that play tricks on one’s mind,’ Méabh answers with a quiver in her voice which makes us all fearful. No body dares to ask her any more questions after that. That is the problem with fear. It destroys ones natural curiosity to learn. And, yet, knowledge is the very cure for fear. The more one knows, the less one fears. That is the problem with playing tricks on one’s mind.
We hear scratchy noises. Scurrying noises. Moan and groan noises. We hear chains rattle and steel doors slam shut. We hear iron bars rust. We smell a smoke which smells wet and musty. We pass through a cold damp fog which smells of fungus. We hear the wind blow but feel no wind upon our faces. We struggle walking through the force of a strong wind blocking our path but we hear no sound of wind blowing with this powerful wind. Our own footsteps ricochet and echo and bounce and double back and hurt our ears. And our eyes. All around us there is darkness, yet, there always seems to be a light at the end of each tunnel we pass through. we always head for the light but we never reach it. It just always is ahead of us. Out of our reach. Moving. Moving out of our line of sight. We always rush to see it yet we fear to catch it.
‘HERE!’
The loudness of the voice coming from no where shocks us all and we are petrified into absolute stillness and motionlessness. Silence. That is the problem with fear. One is afraid to move. Afraid to learn. Afraid.
‘MOVE!’ But shouts. He has had many dealings with the effects of fear. He knows that if he shows us any sympathy, if he caters at all to our fears, then we will be lost. Lost forever. Beyond redemption. And then he will be stuck carrying this stupid THE THING back to where it belongs all by himself, and further more, he will never find out why Méabh wants it and what purpose it might have. The only fear which But has ever had has been the fear of not knowing. He yells at us, to us, around us and through us to our very core. He yells us out of our stupor and we begin to move again. We are still alive. We explain about THE THING to him.
‘A what?’ But exclaims after we explain to him what THE THING is.
‘A Flying Machine,’ Méabh proudly answers. She always feels good when she knows something which But does not already know.
But is a bit astonished, ‘This piece of rubble. A Flying Machine! That’s ridiculous!’
At this point, Lucy, who had been quietly studying But as if he might be another piece of Lost Data, says something which none of us can dispute, ‘Hope and belief are powerful tools. This Flying Machine only needs Hope to fly.’ She holds up the blue stone. The Hope Diamond.
Lucy places the diamond in the center of the Flying Machine. It starts to buzz and purr and hum. And then it sprouts feathers of a fine fiber.
‘I remember,’ I say, ‘Ms. Wiseman once quoting an Emily Dickinson poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul”.’
‘Emily knew,’ Lucy says, ‘but she didn’t have all the necessary information. She should have written, “Hope is the thing with feathers that flies. She did not know about the boron.’
‘Boron?’ I ask.
‘Dr. Keddy told me once, ‘Mary-Ann-Drusillda says, ‘That boron is an igniter. It melts at 3769°F and boils at 7101°F. The numbers are never wrong.’
credit: philosophyofscienceportalblogspot.com/2008
‘And,’ But asks ‘Is this thing going to fly you into space? All the way through a Black Hole?’
‘Don’t be silly,’ Lucy answers, ‘This thing could never fly into space. It would burn up before it left the atmosphere, and that’s if it didn’t just fall apart or burn up on lift off. No, this thing gets added to HOG’s giant pot of Cosmological Soup. I drink the reduced version and it becomes a part of me. Then, I, myself, reduce to infinitesimal size, A Higgs boson. Much easier than eons ago when we had to travel as Quarks. Much more comfortable because the smaller one is, the easier it is to travel long distances through space. Then I’ll be headed home. I’ll just disappear and be gone. I won’t be invisible. I’ll be gone. I’ll be heading home.’
At this confident statement of Lucy’s, and the expression of her firm belief in science and in the calculations necessary to her successful future, I know that Lucy will arrive home safely. I feel much better about the fact that I know my friend will travel safely and arrive home in one piece, albeit, a reduced piece. I figure that when Lucy gets home, she will just become the size she needs to be in order to exist comfortably on the other side of the Black Hole. I have full confidence in Lucy’s knowledge. Unshakable confidence. I feel so much better knowing that Lucy will be home safe. Yes, I do. I really do. But what I don’t understand is why, if I feel so much better about Lucy arriving home safely, why do I feel so sad at the thought of Lucy arriving home safely. Imbedded in the middle of this thought of Lucy arriving home safely is the thought of Lucy leaving. Why is there an empty place in my heart where once our futures stood? I know many things but I do not yet know about forever. Eternity. Infinity. I don’t even understand all that Mary-Ann-Drusillda says about Gödel. How can I possible know all about forever? I am not still a puppy but I am not yet an adult.
The top number is the Atomic number for Boron.
The capital B is the Chemical Symbol for Boron.
The middle number is the Atomic weight of Boron.
CHON
CHON is a mnemonic acronym for the four most common elements found in living organism: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. These are the elements of life. Human beings are composed of CHON. Do you remember where this picture is located in the story? Whose hands are these? Are they the hands of a human being?
Mnemonic means ‘designed to assist memory.’
Acronym means ‘a word formed from the initial letters of successive words.’ Thus CHON is an abbreviated way to say: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen.
Méabh’s tattoos identify her as a human being. But that does not necessarily indicate that she is not also a witch. And, ‘witch’ being a word invented by humans, naturally has many different definitions. That is the way of humans. Answers always bring more questions.
This is the mathematical symbol for infinity, first used as such by John Wallis in 1655. [If you want to read about an interesting period in the history of mathematics, read about John Wallis, Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibnitz. The actual symbol itself was used in various manner for centuries before Wallis, and there are numerous theories concerning it’s origins.
One can go around in circles forever.
Infinity: forever, time without end, perpetuity, always, everlasting, eternal, ceaseless, constant, continuous, etc., or A Never Ending Story.....
Words:
Reverberating
Petrified
Boron
Igniter
Infinitesimal
Higgs boson
Quark
Imbedded
Eternity
Infinity
Questions:
Would you like to explore the Castle Cellar? Why?
What do you call something when you don’t know what to call it?
What is a Black Hole?
Are there White Holes? Red Holes? Blue Holes? Plaid Holes?
What other questions should be asked?
BTW:
Leonardo DaVince and the flying machine: Leonardo da Vinci, April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time, renowned primarily for the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. But Leonardo possessed a genius which went far beyond simply being a remarkable artist. He was, perhaps, the first European interested in a practical solution to flight. Leonardo designed a multitude of mechanical devices, including parachutes, and studied the flight of birds as well as their structure. About 1485 he drew detailed plans for a human-powered wing-flapping device intended to fly. There is no evidence that he actually attempted to build such a device, although the image he presented was a powerful one. Actual fight by humans was not achieved for almost 500 more years. Sometimes, it takes a bit of time before dreams can be achieved.
Alexandria and Pergamon: The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was once the largest library in the ancient world. Generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the third century BC, it was conceived and opened during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, or that of his son Ptolemy II of Egypt. Plutarch (AD 46-120) wrote that Caesar accidentally burned the library down during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BC. However, this version is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of the visit. It has been reasonably established that the library or parts of the collection were destroyed on several occasions, but to this day the details of these destruction events remain a lively source of controversy based on inconclusive evidence. "It's inherently difficult to get reliable information about an event that consisted of the destruction of all recorded information," wrote Neal Stephenson in his December 1996 Wired magazine article, "Mother Earth Mother Board". Yeah, what he said.
Chemical elements, boron, etc, ignitor, Mendelson: The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular method of displaying the chemical elements. Although precursors to this table exist, its invention is generally credited to Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev in 1869. Mendeleyev intended the table to illustrate recurring ("periodic") trends in the properties of the elements. The layout of the table has been refined and extended over time, as new elements have been discovered, and new theoretical models have been developed to explain chemical behavior. The periodic table is now ubiquitous within the academic discipline of chemistry, providing an extremely useful framework to classify, systematize and compare all the many different forms of chemical behavior. The table has also found wide application in physics, biology, engineering, and industry. The current standard table contains 117 elements as of 27 January 2008 (elements 1-116 and element 118). Boron is an element and an igniter ignites. [as in light or kindle a fire]
Check out:
Alexandria and Pergamon
www.uh.edu/engines/epi687.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/libraryofalexandria.html
Castle construction
http://history.howstuffworks.com/middle-ages/castle5.htm
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/castle_builder/
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS315US316&q=castle+cellar+image&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=J2ipSd3cN4qhtweSpKTrDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
Chemistry, periodic table
http://www.dayah.com/periodic/
http://chemistry.about.com/
Computers, cell phones, GPS, modern electronics
http://www.electronicsandyou.com/Electronics-History-Origin-Development.html
http://www.nps.gov/gis/gps/history.html
http://www.computerhistory.org/
http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/
Leonardo da Vinci
Bramly, Serge – Leonardo, Penguin Books, 1988.
Space exploration, Hubble telescope, Dr. Hubble
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS315US316&q=hubble+telescope&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8ny2Sc_cE6DOMuXqiOUK&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
http://hubble.nasa.gov/
http://www.stsci.edu/resources/
http://books.google.com/books?q=hubble+telescope&source=bll&ei=8ny2Sc_cE6DOMuXqiOUK&sa=X&oi=book_group&resnum=18&ct=title&cad=bottom-3results
http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hubble_essentials/edwin_hubble.php
Next and last chapter: Forever Never Ending due to post on December 17, 2009. Winter Solstice is December 21, 2009. The shortest day of the year begins it’s journey to become the longest day of the year. Journeys are like that!
All text and images copyright 2009 Jule Dupre
unless otherwise noted.
Observe much - Think long - Say little...
[Credited to Oxford professor of C. Darwin]
Except, of course, in an emergency. Then you should
Look quick - Think fast - Yell loud!
[Credited to The Evil Grandmother]
Remember to always check your references!
Always question, but question with due respect.
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