We begin with a piece about spiritual revival and what it means for a person to devote their life “so others may live.” Compassion serves as the foundation for this cause from which a love of humanity can spring forth from. The heart becomes hard in the absence of compassion and is often much less concerned with the sufferings of others.

Tushar Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi’s great-grandson, honors his great-grandfather on his 150th birth anniversary in a thoughtful piece about his leadership style and continued emphasis on nonviolence. Mohandas Gandhi always encouraged compassion, tolerance, and love among his followers and their approach towards the oppressive British Raj. It could be argued that Gandhi’s approach could have been significantly different had he centered his movement around violence, anger, and ignorance instead of the Satyagraha movement of nonviolence and compassion.

Research by the late Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto has shown that positive or negative speech, emotions, thoughts, and energy can change the very molecular structure of Earth’s most important liquid: water. It was shown that compassionate speech caused water to form beautiful crystal, whereas hateful speech formed black, broken, and chaotic messes. The implications of this research are phenomenal considering water is the very essence of all life on our planet.

A call to action from Maisie Bennett draws attention to the fires that are still raging in the Amazon Rainforest, destroying the very lungs of our Earth that are integral for sustaining our shared ecosystem. Apathy and greed have taken hold and have seduced people into destroying our planet’s pristine natural beauty in order to claim more land for our own. We, as an international community, must bring forth our compassion and address this critical environmental crisis once and for all.

April Estes, a heroic mother and cancer survivor, shares her story in her piece “Praise the Lord, I’m Bald.” What she has been through is a reminder that challenges that come with cancer are not only about fighting it; “the real battle” is “learning to live again.” Raising awareness in this respect is important, for healing from cancer is not only a biological cure, but one that also needs psychological, social, and economic support in its aftermath.

One of the groups of people that suffer heavily from trauma are immigrants. In this issue, Dr. Tekin starts his article on trauma with the example of a couple from Iraq, tortured and abused by terrorists who killed their kids. Now, safe and away from the dangers of their home country, the couple cannot overcome their fears and pains, despite now living under a roof and having plentiful food and work. “Mass Trauma, PTSD, and Treatment Options” raises awareness of this epidemic, which is lived at both personal and public levels. Its effects will not only shape our populations, but will also leave indelible marks in our souls. 

Can one way of dealing with trauma and disasters be relevant to “the way we view the world and our place in relation to it”? Robert Howe suggests it is. “Fundamentally, the problem of environmental decline is a malady of tension – between the self, society, and nature,” writes Howe, for whom “the environment’s decline is a sign that modernity is suffering from a crisis of spirituality.” In his “Regenerating Life with Soulcentric Education”, Howe pinpoints the problem as education systems which value academic intelligences because they serve the economic values the system upholds. For him, the contemporary education is “the story of separation” in which humans are divorced from nature and the world by “othering” and “commodifying” them. One solution, for Howe, could be “regenerative education,” which educates healthy, soul-centered adults who understand why they are on Earth, why they were born, and who live with a sense of belonging to the natural and human communities. It is certainly an interesting piece to read and offers a renewed perspective on our lives.

“Turning the Unknown and the Different into the Familiar and the Friendly” by Ellen Michelson offers a second way of dealing with the troubles plaguing our world: interfaith dialogue. Ellen is the editor of The Menorah newsletter of the Congregation B’nai Israel, in New Jersey. She has been an active member of the interfaith community, and, together with the other members of her congregation, she reaches out to other faith groups to promote dialogue and understanding. Her piece offers a humble reading of what can be done today to overcome prejudice and to build a society that respects differences.

Circular motions are all around us. Some are visible or perceptible, while many are not. In a contemplative piece in this issue, Jacob Hardy, a dear friend, writes about this fantastic phenomenon that permeates the universe: “Circling in the Universe.” From the smallest forms of existence at the atomic level to the giant galaxies in outer space, circular motions define a key dynamic in how the universe functions. One of these motions discussed in Hardy’s piece is the circulation of blood in our body. In what could be described as no less than a miraculous system, blood travels nearly the half the length of the equator, only in our body, in just a single day. Our circulatory system brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to our muscles and organs, while carrying away waste. We are thankful to Dr. Hardy for this contemplative piece, and we pray that his healthy blood circulation enables a quick recovery.

9/11 has been a turning point in world history. It was not only a devastating day for the lives lost and their families, but also for millions of people around the world – not least for those who had devoted their lives to a dialogue of civilizations as opposed to the “clash of civilizations.” Professor Ron Messier was one of those who had been studying and teaching Islam for more than three decades by 2001. Though saddened by a prospect that his life’s work would possibly be wasted, he chose to find a channel of communication for dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. And he chose Jesus as the focus of this dialogue, for he knew how important Jesus is to both Christians and Muslims. Professor Messier has written for this issue a brief summation of his book Jesus – One Man, Two Faiths: A Dialogue between Christians and Muslims. His conversations with both Muslims and Christians on Jesus offer interesting perspectives, from which much can be learned.  

Also in this issue is a memoir by Kerri Davidson: “In the Eye.” Her piece is a beautiful reminiscence of how parents and kids communicate with their eyes, exchanging feelings of fear, love, and trust. Davidson narrates how she connected with her parents through eye contact. This connection saw them through experiences as mundane as watching horror movies and as traumatic as surviving natural disasters, from leaving home for college to hospital visits. Her story offers many ups and downs, encapsulating the hope and anxiety that every one of us goes through in our lives.

A rainbow is a celestial marvel stretching across the sky after the rain. Along with its spectacular beauty, a rainbow is also a mathematical miracle. By using the language of mathematics, Ali Kaya shows in detail what rainbows offer us.

O heart! You and your suffering for Him exist; ah, how nice it is always to be concerned with Him and suffering for Him! That suffering is, in fact, your cure.
O you who are seeking the world; you are like a day laborer in this world;
and you, lover of Paradise, are also far distant from truth.
O you, who are unaware of the truth and pleased with the two worlds,
You are excused, for you have not felt
the pleasure of suffering for the Beloved’s sake. (Rumi)

How does suffering become a cure or a pleasure? Just like hot peppers do. Why do we consume hot peppers, even though they are painful to eat? In his article, Ali Fethi Toprak explains that experts think hot peppers “are good for our health by lowering blood pressure, having antimicrobial effects, and increasing salivation thus making a boring diet fun.” Kocabas also suggests that, according to some studies, the capsaicin present in hot peppers could be used as a pain suppressor.

Also in this issue, Katharine Branning explains that researchers have discovered a link between the heavy consumption of isot pepper and the very low cancer rates in southeast Turkey. The “research has provided conclusive evidence that isot pepper does indeed possess substantial anti-cancer properties.” In Branning’s piece, the very hot isot pepper does not only help cure cancer, but is also an emblem of dialogue, friendship, and mercy, stretching across cultures and religions.

In her heartbreaking memoir, Magdalena Rusanova tells us about her father, who she lost when she was a child. As we read along, we trace each and every threshold she needed to surpass in her life as she grew into adolescence, developed relationships with others, and faced important choices. Even though her father’s memory faded as the years passed, and despite her pain, there was one significant piece of advice he had given her, which happened to guide her all her life. Choosing the right guide is necessary for an unwavering walk in our lives, as Niyazi-i Misri says,

Let not any guide lead you, for he may make it
too difficult to proceed;
It is very easy for one whose guide is perfect
to advance along this path.
The right guide can even help us discover the pleasure in pain.

Futile cycles are described as two opposing biological reactions that take place in a cell at the same time [1, 2]. As a result, futile cycles have seemingly zero net gain for the cell. Actually, because no process is 100 percent efficient, some energy is lost as heat. Thus, these cycles may even cost cells some energy. They were named “futile” cycles because scientists thought that it was wasteful for a cell to operate two exactly opposite processes simultaneously.

One such process occurs in the powerhouses of cells, the mitochondria. Mitochondria are the places where a process called “oxidative phosphorylation” takes place. Oxidative phosphorylation is an efficient way of producing ATP, the cellular energy currency [1]. In this process, high-energy electrons in nutrients are used to generate potential energy, which is in turn used to produce ATP.

Scientists who worked on mitochondrial function were flabbergasted to discover a family of proteins in the mitochondria that had a strange function. These proteins were dissipating the potential energy in the mitochondria before it could be used to produce ATP. They were named “uncoupling proteins” because they were uncoupling the potential energy buildup from ATP production [3]. Scientists couldn’t imagine what these wasteful proteins were doing in our mitochondria. Uncoupling proteins were decreasing the ATP production efficiency of mitochondria. Therefore, they named this process a futile cycle, where electrons from food were used for building up a potential, and an opposing action of uncoupling proteins were dissipating this potential before it could be stored as ATP [4]. This was similar to short-circuiting a battery by connecting two poles with a wire, and just discharging the energy—energy is lost but no work is done. The scientists took this process as a remnant of a random evolutionary process that was left unfinished—“futile,” with no function at all.

It took several years and the work of a different team of biologists to figure out the benefit of these uncoupling proteins [5]. The scientists were working on the differences between wasps and honey bees. One striking difference between these species was in their ability to adapt to colder temperatures: honey bees couldn’t fly and collect pollen when the outside temperature dropped below 10 C (50 F). They had to stay in their beehives to keep warm. On the other hand, wasps could fly around in colder temperatures. The researchers discovered that the main difference that accounted for this phenomenon was that honey bees didn’t have uncoupling proteins in their mitochondria, while wasps did. Therefore, it became apparent that the main function of uncoupling proteins was to generate heat for the body to stay warm during the times when outside temperatures fell. The uncoupling proteins, it seemed, were generating heat while dissipating the potential energy (just like the wire that heats up when you connect two poles of a battery in short circuit). Later on, it was discovered that these proteins had crucial functions in all warm-blooded animals, especially in ones that hibernate during winter.

In this case, an event that initially appeared to be meaningless or even stupid turned out to be indispensible for supporting life under certain circumstances. The fact that we cannot see wisdom behind certain events does not mean they are random or meaningless. Perhaps it is just a matter of time when, in some context, the seemingly futile thing will have a vital role. So the question remains: is there really any such thing as “random” or “futile”?

References

1. Alberts, B., J.H. Wilson, and T. Hunt. 2008. “Molecular Biology of the Cell.” 5th ed. New York: Garland Science. xxxiii, 1601, [90]

2. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futile_cycle#cite_note-0.

3. Nedergaard, J., D. Ricquier, and L.P. Kozak. 2005. “Uncoupling Proteins: Current Status and Therapeutic Prospects.” EMBO Rep. 6(10), p. 917–21.

4. Jezek, P. and J. Borecky. 1998. “Mitochondrial Uncoupling protein may participate in futile cycling of pyruvate and other monocarboxylates.” Am J Physiol, 1998. 275(2 Pt 1): p. C496–504.

5. Staples, J.F., E.L. Koen, and T.M. Laverty. 2004. “Futile Cycle Enzymes in the Flight Muscles of North American Bumblebees.” J Exp Biol. 207(Pt 5): p. 749–54.