November 15, 1999 EDITORIAL | Over The Edge Page 5
Why my life has less meaning than bacteria

By Showey Yazdanian

TORONTO (CUP) - |
have a bit of advice for
you, because | care for
you very deeply. If you
still believe in the Tooth
Fairy, Santa Claus, free
will, the American
Dream or anything else,
. don’t take Chemistry.
Stick to Children’s
Literature, English
Romantics and other
arts “courses” useful for
sustaining your beauti-
ful delusions. Like most
students | entered uni-
versity with a grand
Vision: unify physics,
solve the Schrodinger
equation for the entire
world and create cold
fusion in a_ thimble.
Science seemed glori-
ous and the Chemistry
and Computer Science
building was the coolest
building on campus.
Indeed, before | learned
the very sad things | am
about to relate to you

my lifelong dream was
not to pass inorganic,
but to build a machine
that drained energy
from a two volt battery
and convert it into
enough power to run
Toronto - and possibly
the entire country.

| worked on this project
with a superhuman
zeal, and yet | remained
Nobel pprize-less for
many moons. | was a
disillusioned failure. |
found my consolation, if
one could call it that, in
the soothing metres of
poetry. In her 1976
poem One Art,
Elizabeth Bishop writes,
“The art of losing isn’t
hard to master/So many
things seem filled with
the intent to be lost that
their loss is no disaster.”

Ms. Bishop set to a vil-
lanelle what the general
populace and dejected
thermodynamicists

have known for years:
You can’t win.

There is no way to halt
the boiling of the cosmic
soup. The universe is
constantly approaching
a state of maximum dis-
order and the only way
to avoid this is to cool its
temperature to absolute
zero (-273 degrees
Centigrade).

This is slightly prob-
lematic. Firstly, life can-
not exist at absolute
zero. Secondly, accord-
ing to some other law |
have not learned yet
absolute zero cannot be
attained. You can’t get
out of the game. Thus,
loss and futility are knit-
ted into the fabric of
existence. The system
cannot be beaten.
Einstein believed that
God “does not play dice
with the universe”.

1 would be more
inclined to agree with

Stephen Hawking, “God
not only plays dice with
the universe, he throws
them where they cannot
be seen”.

We play the game of
life by God’s rules: one,
you cannot win; two, you
cannot break even;
three, you cannot quit
the game. This seems
strangely unbalanced
for one who is omnipo-
tent.

So the lesson today,
my friends, is don’t take

emistry if you don’t
want to get depressed.
In arts classes one can
surmise about the
meaninglessness of life,
to theorize, soliloquize
and dramatize. But
one’s conclusions are
merely words, and
words don’t mean a lot.

And Frasier is on at
10:30 and it’s a pretty
funny show, so we
laugh, and if one can

laugh then life can’t be
too meaningless then,
can it?

And chocolate tastes
good, especially when it
encases that fudgy
liquor caramel type
sweetness in the centre
‘of those — spherical
chocolates. If | can
enjoy something as
subtle and smooth as
chocolate then life has a
purpose.

And in the meantime, |
can think about pro-
found things: How many
angels can dance on
the tip of a pin? If a tree
falls in the middle of a
forest does it make a
sound? Was Hamlet's
madness real or
feigned?

In real courses and in
real life, | know: how
television works, that
laughter is a physiologi-
cal response to external
stimuli, and that choco-

late is a carbohydrate-
based foodstuff with
certain chemicals in it
can that have marked
hormonal effects, partic-
ularly in women.

If a tree falls in the mid-
dle a forest with no one
around, of course it
makes a sound. Sound
is a physical phenome-
non that has nothing to
do with people.

How many angels can
dance on the head of a
pin? Who cares? Was
Hamlet's madness real
or feigned? It was
feigned, obviously,
because Hamlet is nota
REAL guy, he is a fake
character in a story and
accordingly all of his ill-
nesses are fake.

That's the end of my
story, | suppose. Not
that it matters anyway.

LETTERS

Is the Women’s Centre Too Radical?

On our small universi-
ty campus in northern
British Columbia, the
idea of a women’s cen-
ter may seem like a rad-
ical idea. However,
every other major uni-
versity in Canada has a
women’s center so we
are not the first ones. In
think that because we
are in the north, there
are more social prob-
lems that affect women
and less services to
provide assistance. The
conflicts around the
Northern Women’s
Center have been going
on since its inception
and it is time to settle
things so that the
women can organize
themselves to provide
more events for the uni-
versity as a whole.

| came to UNBC in
1994 and | will admit, |
never stepped a foot in
the Women’s Cenier. | t

was not because | was
afraid, | just did not think
that | need it. And now,
five years later, | am an
active volunteer and
user of the facility. |
became involved when |
realized that there were
issues facing women
and that the Women’s
Center could potentially
be this space. Every
year, there are new vol-
unteers, new faces
coming in and out, but
the struggle is still the
same: every year, we
spend more of our time
preparing for the
NUGSS Annual
General Assembly and
Board Meetings that we
an for other events that
benefit this university as
a whole. We are con-
stantly needing to justify
our need for space and
funding. When the mak-
ings of UNBC began,
the Women’s Center

was started concerned
staff and faulty and the
funding came from the
university. Although this
may seem like an easier
process, it is not the
solution. The capabili-
ties for the women’s col-
lective go far beyond
preparing cases and
defending ourselves.
The main focus of the
Women’s center is to
promote the _ social,
mental and_ physical
health of all the women
on campus. Women are
a vital part of the UNBC
campus and we cannot
continue to let women
be oppressed. Women
need to share experi-
ences and _= stories.
Women need a place to
gather rest, talk, study
and organize them-
selves. Women need to
discuss the issues that
affect them and work
together to solve their

o

problems.

Although a vital part «
of the UNBC campus,
the Center is just one
step for the women’s
movement. The truth is,
we should not need a
women’s center. But
until women have
equality in society, we
need places such as the
Women’s Center for it
allow the women the
space to continue to

work towards the
advancement of women
in society.

No, the women’s cen-
ter is not radical. Unless
asking for consistent
funding and positive
working relationships is
too much.

Joella Hogan

More Defense of the

Women’s Centre

Arriving at UNBC for
my first semester life
couldn’t have been
much: worse, | was bro-
ken. Up ‘to that point
1996 had been an
impossible year. In June
of that year my partner
of 2 years a man who |
love immensely came
home drunk and beat
the crap out of me. Nice.
After the “usual” may-

hem of this situation: °

sneaking out of the
house once he had
passed out cold, crying
on my mom’s shoulder,
and getting some por-
traits of my new look
done at the police sta-
“tion, | concluded it was
time for a new life.
Coming across a UNBC
calendar | decided to go
North, having lived on
the Island my whole life,
this was sudden and
strange decision.
| arrived on campus
with all my baggage, no
matter what you think

you have left behind -
EVERYTHING comes
with you! | didn’t know
anyone, so 1 headed to
the Women’s Center,
this was probably one of
the best decisions |
could make. The center
provided me with a safe
place to get to know
other women. Share
experiences and heal
some old wounds. It
provided me with a
sense of belonging and
safety, something many
women have desperate-
ly needed at different
times in their life.

People ask why there
isn’t a “Men’s Center”
maybe when men are
beat into a pulp at an
alarming rate by their
partners, raped or
stalked there will be a
need for one.

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