―Lauren Oliver
The Amber of the Moment
I recall a golden afternoon in my last year of high school. My two friends and I were walking home debating the meaning of Louis MacNeice's poem, August
The poem used an extended metaphor comparing Time to a camera shutter whisking away precious moments. I was stuck on the last two lines:
Our mind, being dead, wishes to have time die,
For we, being ghosts, cannot catch hold of things.
I think it was at that moment I decided to make it my life's work to prove the poet wrong. I was sure we could catch hold of Time and if we wanted, sustain it forever...
and I purposed to do just that.
Fast forward almost three decades and here I am on the brink of accomplishing my goal―catching hold of Time and using it for our purposes. Not allowing Time to dictate our lives.
It's not impossible and certainly not mystical, it's all a matter or reprogramming our DNA.
I can't count the number of times I've sat nostalgically listening to Jim Croce's song, Time in a Bottle and mentally refuting it, because there is enough time to do all the things we want to do―we just have to want it bad enough to make it come true.
And I've become an expert on discovering the Fountain of Youth.
I confess I often gaze with pride at the bronze nameplate on my office door―Professor Elias Connors, Chair, Department of Genetics.
But it's my work at the Centre for Aging Research that truly fills me with joy because I'm fulfilling my life's ambition of reversing aging and sustaining youth.
And I'm at the point of testing my results on a small number of hand-picked volunteers, the first one being Britni Hill, an Emmy-winning actress who has starred in two long-running TV soap operas covering a span of over two decades.
She wants to be restored to the enchantress she was in her twenties and I've advised her it's not only possible but probable that we'll roll back the clock to half her present age.
I'm sure some people would regard this as mere vanity, but they'd be wrong.
Having your cells and organs rejuvenated is not simply pandering to physical appearance, it's a process of becoming more healthy, even to the point of reversing certain degenerative diseases.And who could disagree with that?
No, what we are doing in our research is of vast benefit to humanity and the medical establishment and in the end will reduce the exorbitant amounts paid to medicare and medicaid and reduce the strain on hospitals and health care workers.
And the bonus will be a more youthful and vigorous population. I count it all as a win.