***** Vol.3 Chap.33 A walk on campus *****

For an entire week, everything appeared calm on the surface. For a change, the phone was extraordinarily quiet. Frank went about his usual routine with classes and other faculty duties. JB did not show up for the research meeting. In fact, she seemed to have disappeared from her office and the campus grounds.

This morning, as he was relaxing in his oversize executive chair, looking out of his big picture window, somehow, he lacked motivation for the day. Scanning at his computer with over a hundred emails to be answered, those could wait. He looked at his inbox on the desk. The incoming mail had been piled over two feet high. Those too could wait.

Ordinarily, he was quite conscientious and diligent about the mail. Every morning and every afternoon, he would pick up his mail. Immediately looking over his mail, he would sort them into three piles: immediate, normal, and later.

The ‘immediate’ pile would be taken care of sometime within the day with what needed to be done. Then, perhaps once a week when he was not that busy, he would take care of the ‘normal’ pile. The ‘latter’ pile consisted mostly of journals and magazines that he seldom had time to touch and read that pile at all.

Today, there was no motivation to continue on his monotonous routine. So, taking a break from his typical routine, he wanted to enjoy the wonderful nature outside his window and take a stroll on the campus grounds, something that he had not done for years.

Since he had joined the university, his world, having shrunk considerably, composed of his office, his apartment, and the faculty club where he had his meals when he was alone.

His apartment was only a place to sleep when he was not traveling. The furnishings at his apartment were Spartan at best. Though the apartment was furnished when he rented it, only the bare essential was present. There was a bed and a small dresser in the bedroom, a couch and a coffee table in the living room, and a dinette set with four chairs in the kitchen.

When he moved in, he added a color TV at the corner of the living room and an oversized recliner. When he was at home, his favorite spot was the recliner facing the TV. Sometimes, he would fall asleep in the recliner instead of in the comfort of his own bed.

Normally he got up at 7:00 am in the morning, showered and then left immediately for his office where he would make a pot of his special Columbian blend coffee with either Irish crème or French vanilla flavoring.

He would start his day answering emails and taking care of any necessary correspondences. There were always recommendation letters to be written for different students. There were always papers to be reviewed for various journals and magazines.

The rest of the day would be spent in meetings such as faculty meetings, university committees, student’s advisory meetings, meetings with other faculty members, conference calls with other colleagues on one matter or another.

For many days, a whole day would go by without him even noticing that the day was over. Most of the time, he would grab a sandwich in between meetings for lunch. Sometimes, he would skip lunch all together. In the evening, he would work until 6:00 pm then dash quickly to the faculty club for a meal before the club closed. After dinner, he headed home with a paper or two in his briefcase to read.

Weekends were the same as weekdays. In fact, weekends were more treasured and coveted because while the rest of the campus community was sleeping and partying; he found he could get much work done in the peace and serenity of his office without interruptions. Many of his brilliant ideas came during the weekends while he was working quietly in his office. Weekends were the best time to write papers and grant proposals.

But today, he sneaked out of his office for a walk before anyone saw him. He knew that if he stayed in his office, someone would have found him eventually and there would be phone calls and meetings and interruptions.

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He went to the faculty club for an early lunch. Afterwards, instead of hurrying back to his office, he just meandered around the campus. As he came out of the Faculty Club, he deliberately walked in the opposite direction towards the central part of the campus. With no specific place in mind, he wandered around the grounds exploring some uncharted territories on the campus.

There were so many places on this campus that he did not know they existed. He read about new buildings and new construction in the school paper, but never visited the new construction. Today seemed like a good day to visit and be acquainted with the campus.

He wandered around the quad, passing an old decrepit building. What building was that? It should have been torn down years ago. He went closer to look at the sign at the front. It read “McMahon Hall, Literature.” No wonder.

Clearing a small hill, he took a deep breath. The air was clear and sweet. There was a gentle breeze blowing in his face, blowing past his graying sideburns. Casting away all nagging thoughts about his present hassles and troublesome experimental results, he felt refreshed.

He thought to himself, would that not be nice if there were no violence in this world, no worries, and no predators? Why can’t we just enjoy nature and the beauty of nature, and better still be a part of this beautiful nature?

He strolled along a dirt path littered with falling leaves. There were students hustling around him, since it was time for classes to change. But He was not bothered. He rather savored this peaceful moment. It had been a long, long time since he was at peace with himself and with the surrounding environment. Perhaps I have been working too hard. He told himself.

He saw the wind picked up the fallen leaves on the ground. The leaves made little swirls, encircling the dust at the center. There were a few loose rocks on the path and he kicked a few of them like a little kid. That felt good.

The paths were clear now. Only a few students remained. A few were sitting on the benches, enjoying one another’s company. There was another couple kissing one another passionately in the warm afternoon sun. A student had his book opened on his lap though he was sound asleep. A girl with a pink blouse was all cuddled up, totally absorbed with a novel under a tree. In the distance, some students were chanting and practicing the army march.

ROTCs. He thought to himself.

He found an empty bench and sat down. He took a couple of deep breaths and felt quite relaxed. Here was a perfect world with no malice and no violence. There was nothing here to spoil this serene scene. He looked up and saw the buildings, even the silhouettes of the students in the classrooms, through the open windows.

He could see the instructors standing at the front of the classrooms, trying to pass on the knowledge to the next generation. So that the new generation did not have to relearn the same lessons that the older generations had to learn. Well, the institute was certainly very good at passing knowledge from one generation to another. He wondered if only the good and not the bad was passed on, or only the bad and not the good?

The wind blew again in front of him, and the leaves made a gentle swirl. The motion distracted him from his train of thought. He looked around. The campus looked rather deserted when class was in session. He looked the other way. The library came into view. An imposing building that had been added on several times to become the monstrous behemoth today.

In there was the total of human knowledge. There must be books on every subject and every aspect of life. No other creatures on this planet have libraries, only humans. That was interesting. Did that mean that there was insufficient information carried in the genes that we needed such a vast library to pass on what we knew from one generation to another generation?

Margaret said that less than 15% of our genes were used. So why were we carrying 85% of useless information in our genes? Yet we needed books after books to describe our behavior, what we knew, how we lived, etc. He shook his head.

I am here to enjoy a brief reprieve from my busy schedule, not to worry myself to death. He told himself. I deserve a brief break. I have been out of town too much in the last couple of months.

A squirrel came crawling up the bench in search of food. The little animal moved haltingly, not sure if he was friend or foe. Even if he stayed extremely still, the squirrel was apprehensive. It looked this way, and it looked that way. Then it darted forward two steps. Then it looked at him, it looked to its left and it looked to its right again.

Now who taught you to be so careful, little squirrel? He said aloud to the little animal.

As soon as he moved a little finger, the little thing scrambled away. But when he stayed still, the squirrel kept coming back. He cupped his hands together and extended his finger towards the squirrel. The little thing slowly came towards his fingers, sniffling the whole time.

He thought he saw a puzzled look on the animal. Of course, he did not know if a squirrel would feel confused or not. But after sniffling for a while, the animal scatted away, seeing that there was no food in his hand. What marvelous genetic programming at work here.