In those days Pt. 8.

[Kai]

She was building a church.

The sun rose over the patch of ground just high enough to be out of range of flood, waters from the swamp and marshes below, a little hillock in otherwise forgotten land no one wants because it's so obviously good for nothing and besides, that cathedral over there is so BIG, so imposing and all the artwork....and the huge library.

She had spent years there, cloistered, reading the tomes and doing the spiritual things that all men and women of science are called to. It was just mandatory, had to be a big stone place, had to go to where all the people are going, heed the call of the foundation layers.

But that was over now. She had /ideas/ strange and weird about what was right and good to study, what creatures, what theories, what objects of the mind. Though those old mages would probably say they kicked her out, she left on her own, in the night. Not to another great temple, but someplace new.

You could see her rolling large stones up that hill for a foundation, a Sisyphus who's only companion was her thoughts and the few books she read in between the breaks in her work, and the books she wrote at night before sleep and in her dreams. Or you would have, if anyone had been around to see it. She was alone, outcast, weird, a witch no more a mage, possessing some power of mind or spirit or both that insured hatred.

And so she toils lays the foundation sets the wall posts constructs a roof. Makes a gathering place that is now small and filled only with her ideas but soon may be as big as those cathedrals. She carried with her the words, go and build a temple in the swamps and marshes, in the backwaters, away from the babels that have been constructed, separate thyself from the masses and cut new ground lay new stone.

When they rush to the cathedrals I shall build on fresh soil, in the backwaters.

[Reginald Ret]

You intend to be one paradigm shift ahead of all others?
Otherwise i don't get it.
Good writing though.

[Dr. Paes]

Do you think she was right to leave, Kai?
Those immense stone structures. Those vast temples. They're only as strong as the ideas they're built on.
Those old mages have spent too long in their cathedrals to notice that the pillars keeping the roof up off their heads aren't as strong as they suspected they would be.
It's sad that they can't see that, though. That these seekers of truth decided "alright, we've found it and it's here, in this stone tower" and then stopped seeking. So they build the tower ever higher, ignoring the flaws at the foundation... or maybe thinking "yeah, we'll address those later, but for now we've got to keep climbing. That's how we explore the possibilities."

She sees, though. She knows what these 'men of knowledge' do not. Cannot.
It'll all come tumbling down on their heads, Kai... and maybe her new temple will be where those who survive it seek refuge.

[Kai]

You intend to be one paradigm shift ahead of all others?
Otherwise i don't get it.
Good writing though.

EO Wilson said not to be too eager to rush to the cathedrals of science, the areas/technologies/groups of organisms/theories that many people are working on. He implored that the young researcher go to the backwaters, those areas yet untamed, and make them mainstream.

[Kai]

Do you think she was right to leave, Kai?
Those immense stone structures. Those vast temples. They're only as strong as the ideas they're built on.
Those old mages have spent too long in their cathedrals to notice that the pillars keeping the roof up off their heads aren't as strong as they suspected they would be.
It's sad that they can't see that, though. That these seekers of truth decided "alright, we've found it and it's here, in this stone tower" and then stopped seeking. So they build the tower ever higher, ignoring the flaws at the foundation... or maybe thinking "yeah, we'll address those later, but for now we've got to keep climbing. That's how we explore the possibilities."

She sees, though. She knows what these 'men of knowledge' do not. Cannot.
It'll all come tumbling down on their heads, Kai... and maybe her new temple will be where those who survive it seek refuge.

She had to leave to grow. Those cathedrals might stand for centuries, for aeons, but at the same time there will be stagnation. People become comfortable. And soon too crowded to move about freely.

[Jenne]

This one is more peaceful, great imagery, as well, like the others.  I like the mission statment at the end.