Eureka

I’m beginning to think that ‘Eureka moments’ are just a scam. I have yet to hear some sane person scream ‘eureka!’ (note exclamation mark) all of the sudden without any rhyme or reason.

Did Einstein shout eureka when he came up with his theory of relativity? Did a light bulb appear conveniently light up above Thomas Alva Edison’s head when he came across electric lighting? Or did something ring up there when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone?

Come to think of it, I have this sinking feeling that eureka moments are just another government and corporate plot to make us all think really hard (or at the very least, try to think) until something useful pops up. When eventually something does pop up (which we will assume is something really amazing and is of equal standing of Einstein’s e=mc² formula) the thinker actually screams ‘eureka!’ and the government and corporate bigwigs will fly into the room and try to buy off the idea.

But, this has yet to happen, so this thus far is another add-on to my list of assumed reasons and speculations of things unexplained (which are of farfetched-nature-yet-so-farfetched-that-they-might-strangely-be-true).

The only time I actually heard somebody shout ‘eureka!’ (with exclamation mark and matching hand gesture of pointing up at the ceiling and jumping out of his seat) was on television. It was a character from the show ‘Angel’ (a show about an extremely good-looking vampire with a soul ironically named Angel) and he was English, so perhaps that explained the ‘eureka!’ exclamation.

But, wouldn’t it great if people actually did go around shouting ‘eureka!’ whenever some idea pops into their heads? Ideas don’t have to be groundbreaking, or world-changing, for all we know, they might be the answers to last year’s tough physics question over which you have been mulling over for months.

I have yet to shout ‘eureka!’ though – not because I am short of brilliant ideas (I’m a self-proclaimed genius, though I know others beg to differ) – but because I kept forgetting the word existed (to me, it’s archaic).

I hit my head against the window of a tour bus bound for a posh hotel. It hurt pretty badly and I was sure it left a painful lump. However, somewhere while my head connected with the Plexiglas and the pain registered in my brain, I believe I had an idea forming in my already muddled mind (something to do with our thesis and my article assignment for class). In the end, I forgot the so-called brilliant ideas and shouting ‘eureka!’, all that came out of my mouth was: “Ouch”.