8 degrees below zero...

what's with these cold mondays?  the low of the low.  i had a discussion yesterday with 2 folks -- potential collaborators/clients.  the goal: to model community health.  the excitement for: a venture into the realm of environmental health science and policy, and away from strict benchwork toxicology.  i can't express enough how much this thrills me.  but it also made think how, within academia, can i develop a project to collaborate with these folks?  it all seemed relatively simple -- except for the one word -- academia.  i.e., staying within.  i think of working in the realm of science and community health policy and the inspiration meter levels off the charts.  i think of staying in academia -- and heck if that didn't make me want to stay in bed the rest of the day...  of course that didn't happen...i made lentil soup and did laundry instead.  i am astonished at the swing of emotion, though.  and i am anxious.  me, step outside the realm of academia, where i've lived these past 20 years???  there's a lot yet undone, i feel, to prepare me for this next step.  where is the time?  i wish i had a lover that would help guide me through this next venture -- somebody i can depend upon to share ideas, concerns, organizational plans, and all the while help keep me sane and level-headed.  is this the job of a lover?  i'd like to think so, but i'm starting to lose faith in what one can expect of a partner.  yikes.  ...time to go walk the dog and envelop myself more directly within the walls of academia.  more later on these topics.  i'm glad i started this post.  i'm still toeing the waters of this blogging experience, being cautious of the extent to what i want, vs. need, vs. physically capable to share.  let me throw this other thing out -- i want to begin a family, this summer perhaps.  ah!  what does that mean!?!  hee, hee.  ;-)

science is only one layer.

it is 6 degrees BELOW zero this morning in rochester, ny.  i just called my friend and we agreed it was too cold to go running at 6:45am.  before calling, i'd already decided it was too cold to take my dog.  6 below.  i'd say this has to be a record temperature since i moved to rochester in jan2006.  where is that line between too cold and not for a human to conduct prolonged physical activity/exercise outside?  ....for a domesticated animal?

i listened to a radio program this weekend about the morality of nature - or rather, the moral nature of the universe.  the program discussed the existence of both science and god.  the argument, as i understood it, for the ability of god to existence in a scientific world, given there is no objective proof of god, was that because experimental parameters and results, despite all the laws of science, can sometimes be unpredictable, if even unexplained -- therein this uncertainty lies god.  it's not that god IS the uncertainty, or has control over it, rather -- it's just that because there are things that happen in nature that science cannot explain -- then there can just as easily be a god existing in nature that science should not need to explain.

the most interesting concept i gathered from this program is that science is ONLY ONE layer of interpreting the way the world goes round, of interpreting nature.  this is a very nice way to communicate to folks my desire to move from a career IN science to one ABOUT science policy.  science is only one layer of answering the critical questions about how a community, a population, a nation evolves.  in managing chaos, as politics in a democracy attempts to do, the use of science is critical when interpreting what the boundaries should and should not be of exposures, of innovations, of technologies, of energies, of monies, of urban and agricultural planning that are used at ALL levels of society - from a small town community, to a large nation population, to an increasingly integrated world.  aye!

but quickly getting back to a conjoining nature and morality - i am very intrigued.  a goal this week is to thereof invite discussion into my life.

it is now, as the sun is coming up, 7 degrees below zero.  it's getting even colder.  my, what an unexpected, dare i say unnatural, trend.....  (but it could just be a computer glitch...a page not refreshed...indeed).

the start.

this is a bit intimidating.  for several simple reasons:

• the words in my head are presented in an other, visible medium.
• there just may be more important thoughts that will make the world better go 'round.
• i have no idea who is reading this.  why do you want to?  what do you think?
• it brings to light how easily i think things are interesting - and wish to share; yet when it comes time to present, i've already forgotten.

however, i truly believe things often get easier.  so the start is worth a thousand words.  this simple gesture.  this is going to be fun...