Half a Teaspoon of Widsom

The fantastical Mary Poppins' "a spoonful of sugar" is often a bit difficult to resist. May the sweet saccharides be in the alluring form of Hershey's milk chocolate or a grandma's coffee cake smothered in ruby red, ripe strawberries and winter-chilled vanilla ice-cream, these delicious carbohydrates are sirens calling us into temptation's grip. Yet, with the obesity epidemic running rampant across the nation, there is a doubt that half a teaspoon of wisdom can be encountered amidst this greed and gluttony. The quest for ultimate satisfaction, in beauty, knowledge, or life may be not the absolution of the selfish homo-sapiens, but rather their demise. As Raymo's so eloquently warns, this “unexamined quest [] is hemmed with peril”. Science, Raymo's cautions, much like the mythical Janus, god of Greece, is two-faced: just as it may incite the beginning of paradise, it may equally incite the end. Therefore, "a measure of restraint" must be exerted, for if it is not, all that is human and pure and natural will be sacrificed to fulfill an Utopian universe that cannot last. All that will result is "a hellish zoo"- a dreamed heaven that will prove to be the path to the devil's domain- and not even the Goddess of Wisdom herself, Athena, may correct the mayhem that ensues.