At Sue Broadhurst's wedding, 1998
She was always happy when other people were happy
I am at Fred Hutch with no QC-ing to do, so I decided to write another blog entry. My initial idea was to write about telomeres, telomerase, aging and - of course - cancer. However, it has become glaringly apparent that I need to do more study - a lot more study - to get this even remotely right. So instead I'm going to post most of what I wrote for the Geology Department newsletter. It describes my activities here, and flogs my blog to an audience of thousands (well, maybe a few dozen). So that's it, below.
But I can't resist introducing you to a creature I just encountered while reading about telomeres. This is the "TERT-green fluorescent protein transgenic reporter mouse." This little fellow is important in telomere research, but I can't help but visualize a glowing-green mouse with a pencil, pad of paper, and maybe a cigar, hiding in a corner during - say - Watergate. So, anyway, the newsletter entry:
Well, I blink my eyes and suddenly I’m nearly 80 and retired for 15 years. I guess I could quote the old business about “time flying when you’re having fun”, but it really wouldn’t apply for much of the last few years, until lately.
Have you ever heard of “The purpose-driven life?” It is said that to maximize joy and satisfaction in life one must always have a useful project in hand. Some presumably wise Frenchman whose name I can’t remember, and couldn’t spell if I did, put it that “Every man needs a project.” Well, whoever he was, he seems to have been right, at least where I’m concerned.
After Linda died I sat around a lot, staring at my toes. I got fat, my arthritis got worse, my golf game went to hell; to put it bluntly, I felt like crap. Then, about six months ago, I finally summoned the energy to do what everyone had been telling me to do – I went out to find somewhere to volunteer. I tried the cancer center; they were “full”. I tried the hospital: likewise. I tried Hospice House. They had a waiting list. So, in desperation I aimed for what I really wanted to do in the first place: I asked the ovarian cancer people at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center if they could use some unskilled labor - and a miracle occurred. They welcomed me, gave me a card that opens all the doors, an office (better than anything I ever had at WWU), a computer, and a title. I am officially a Research Advocate. No money, of course, but all the office supplies and stuff that I can possibly use. And their cafeteria is excellent! I feel like a new man; I have a purpose in life, that purpose is pre-eminently useful, and it lets me work to eradicate the disease that killed my wife. Wonderful!
What is a Research Advocate, you ask? Well, that’s an interesting question. Nobody seems to know. Obviously I am supposed to “advocate” for cancer research, but how I do it seems to be up to me. I can tell you what I do, but this wouldn’t apply to our other Advocates, none of whom I have ever seen. I study a lot. I read their papers and research proposals and try to provide feed-back. (This is hard when you don’t really understand what you’re reading. Hard, yes, but, it turns out, not impossible.) I go to their seminars and keep my mouth shut. (Sometimes they look at me and ask if I understand what they’re talking about. I usually say “a little bit”, causing them to explain it in simpler terms. I think it helps them clarify their thinking.) It is always a little bit like “Alice down the biochemical rat-hole”, but it is fun, and I have the feeling that I’m useful. I go to Seattle two days per week, stay with my daughter, and spend most of the day at my Fred Hutch office. At home I study and write my …….blog.
Yes, I have a blog. It relates my adventures as a geologist pristinely innocent of any kind of biochemistry, messing around in cancer research. I try to make it funny, but sneak in some facts from time to time. You should follow it. The URL is www.ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com, but you can get to it easier by Googling “Myrl’sBlog”.
So, anyway, the trajectory of my life so far has been from Caltech, hoping to become a physicist, to Stanford, studying to be a lawyer, to becoming a geologist, to studying trees, then Egyptology – and finally, to cancer research. I may not live to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, but I’m trying. And I feel great.
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