I stood in awe of two news this morning.
One has to do with the human spirit. The other has to do with quantum physics.
The first news is a tragedy of sorts. A beautiful girl at 18 puts a hunting rifle below her chin and she pulls the trigger. Death is almost certain, but alas, she survived.
Katie Stubblefield knew she was at the end of her life at 18 when he had to struggle with chronic gastrointestinal problems, which she has to undergo surgery for, and her boyfriend just broke up with her.
To compound matters, her mother was "fired abruptly from teaching at the same school that she attended."
So, after she pulled the trigger, she "lost parts of her forehead, her nose and sinuses, most of her mouth and bones that made up her jaw and structures of her face. Her eyes remained but they were badly damaged."
In other words, Katie literally blew her whole young pretty face off.
Plastic surgeon Brain Gastman said: "Her brain was basically exposed and, I mean, we are talking seizures and infections and all kinds of problems. Forget the face transplant, we are talking about just being alive."
However, in a bid not just to save her life, but also her face (for what's left of it), Katie went through 31 hours of surgery which involved "replacing her full facial tissue - transplanting the scalp, forehead, upper and lower eyelids, eye socket, nose, upper cheeks, upper jaw and half of the lower jaw, upper teeth, partial facial nerves, muscles and skin."
The surgery was nevertheless a success and mind you, there are only 39 surgeries of this kind. Hers is the 40th.
Her donor (of the face) was a 31-year-old Ms Andrea Schneider, who died of a drug overdose.
Snatching Katie from the jaws of death, with her life and face (more or less) preserved, Katie now has to take medication "to reduce the risk of organ rejection, and will do so for the rest of her life."
She also has to continue physical and occupational therapy for as long it takes.
Katie said: "I felt so guilty that I had put my family through such pain. I felt horrible."
Now, at 21, Katie can finally face the world and her future. It reports that "she hopes to go to college and eventually find a career in counselling and motivational speaking."
She said: "So many people have helped me, now I want to help other people."
Katie said she hopes "to speak to teenagers about suicide prevention, echoing what she told CNN: Life is precious, and life is beautiful."
Hold it there, put a tag on that phrase, I'll surely come back to it.
Here's the second news - for the science geek, which is out of my league (of course).
Quantum physics - my god, who understands it? Currently, no one - exactly.
In an article written by Prof Vlatko Vedral entitled "In search of the theory of everything", Vlatko attempts to crack the mystery of reconciling gravity of everyday life (the macro-world) and gravity of the atoms (the quantum world or micro-world).
At the moment, they are irreconcilable because while "gravity...can only be understood as a force emerging from an object that exists at only one well-defined position at any given time", in quantum space, all tiniest objects "can exist in two or more locations at the same time."
It's like they are omnipresent.
What then keeps them together? What kind of gravity holds them?
Unlike the pull of gravity in quantum world, we know an apple will fall down (not up) in our world. That predictability helps us to understand the world at large.
But in small quantum space, why are particles so sneaky, existing in a probability of different locations at one given time?
Not only that, Vlatko wrote that the macroscopic intuition about causality is different from the causality in the world around us.
This is just another way of saying that in the real world, cause and effect are fixed. If you want to switch on the TV, press the button switch on th remote controller.
The "cause" is the button being pressed, and the "effect" is viola! the TV is switched on.
But in quantum world, causality plays trick on us.
Here is how Vlatko describes the quantum phenomenon:-
"In quantum gravity, causes and effects could be reversed. The TV could go off before we touch the remote control. In fact, the two orders, TV goes off before or after the remote control was used, could even exist at the same time." Go figure?
So the holy grail of quantum physics is to merge the two (that is, gravity in the real world and gravity in quantum world) and to find a single theory that governs the two worlds.
Scientists have been searching for it since Einstein's time - to no avail.
Vlatko however thinks he has a shot at it by engaging in what he calls quantum entanglement which he had explained in the article, but it is not relevant to my post here.
My point here however is to bring out the differences between the two worlds we confront everyday, or Katie confronts everyday.
We have the world outside of us. The gravitational law that governs it is straightforward. The cause and effect is predictable. You switch on and off the TV and it does as you press the remote. It does not go "crazy" like in the quantum world. It is an ordered world.
Metaphorically speaking, in the real world, these are the rules of the concrete jungle. You succeed, you are happy - people gravitate towards you. You fail, you are sad - people stay away from you.
You are only as good as your last worst action. Should you fall, even once, all your good deeds are cast in the negative shadow of that fall - even if it was a folly on your part.
The world out there tells you how to live your life. It is rigged in such a way as to program in you the need for the pursuit of fame, power and wealth. It spares no time for things and virtues that require time to cultivate like resilience, character and hope.
Now, all that (resilience, character and hope) are what is within us. It is the world we face within our spirit. That is the quantum world for me. It does not go by the rules of the macro-world we live in.
They are invisible just like atomic particles. They defy earthly definitions and do not follow the causes and effects of the real world where the rules are this: To be happy, you have to be rich. To be whole, you have to be famous. To be fulfilled, you have to wield power. And no one will respect you if you have neither (that is, riches, fame nor power).
Now, this is where Katie's phrase fits in. She said: "Life is precious, and life is beautiful."
In her state now, needless to say, she is different from what she looks like before. Her one rushed act three years ago changed her life forever.
By the world standards, losing her looks (as she was before) would mean losing everything that defines her. That's the logic of the macro-world.
It is straightforward cause and effect - that is, the cause (pulling the trigger of the hunting rifle) and the effect (she should feel miserable in the state she is in now together with having to take lifetime medication).
Yet, thank god for the quantum world, that is, the spirit within us - that which defies the predictable causality or dictates of this world.
Katie now treasures life. It is beautiful for her. Her beauty radiates from the inside. She now looks forward to her future and wants to be a positive impact to teenagers, a spokesperson against suicide.
Her desire to end her life when she supposedly had everything by the standards of the world like youth and beauty is now turned upside down in the world within where different rules apply. She values life.
Her fortified spirit is inspiring because she now looks beyond the superficial, beyond the appearances, and towards the simple pleasures of life that leads to lasting fulfilment and contentment.
Truly, how many youth her age can say the same thing and mean it with all their heart.
Let me end with this quote that has always kept the two worlds for me in balance and in proper perspective.
"What is beautiful is not always good. But what is good is always beautiful."
Indeed it is.
Beauty in the flesh, in the possessions and in the worldly accolades do not define a person. They do not necessarily grow you, deepen your character or embolden your spirit.
But what is good, what is the ageless beauty from within, is truly always beautiful because it can transform what at first sight seems to be a tragedy into strength you never thought you possess, into enduring hope that rises from deep within, and into a resilience that inspires many to push forward in their own lives.
Indeed, we are like plane glass windows. In the day, we all shine out and reflect the brightness of the sun. But during the night, true and lasting beauty can only be seen when there is light within. Cheerz.
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