Searching for Tardigrade

Have you ever seen
the celestial tardigrade
an organism so miniscule and keen
that it can float in the universe, a masquerade
performed by a trillion tardigrades
Isn't it too marvelous
to only appear on the AP Biology book

I was an astronomer. I studied the elements of the universe, and conducted intensive research about stars and black holes. The trillion stars scattered around the universe looked like trillion tardigrades. As I knew more about black holes, I thought that I was getting closer to the masquerade performed by many tardigrades. I was astonished every time when I acquired knowledge because I felt that I was having a more clear view of the tardigrade. My best day as an astronomer was when my assistant told me that my conjecture was proven right.

“Dr. Strauss, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) announced that your paper about the dark matter problem is correct.”

“Then, you mean that I found out what dark matter is made of?”

“Yes, they said that your conjecture was proven without any error.”

I had just solved a mystery in astronomy. I felt the tardigrade swimming inside my mind. Many newspapers started to cover my discovery.

Dr. Strauss, Solved the Ultimate Problem of Astronomy (Daily News)

The Mystery of the Universe Solved, Dr. Strauss Says (Tribune)

However, the tardigrade soon disappeared from my head. In fact, I did not solve the ultimate problem of astronomy. Many problems sprouted out from my discovery, and my instinct told me that these problems were too difficult for me. I failed to find the tardigrade. I had to find another field of study where I could find it.

This was when I was 28 years old.

Have you ever seen
the marvelous tardigrade
In case you haven't,
It becomes a ball one moment,
but at the next
turns into a pitiful raisin.
Chewy but crispy at the same time!
What marvel are you tardigrade,
Be there God's blessing on
who describes you well!

I decided to become a biologist. I thought that studying about living things would greatly help me finding the tardigrade. Realizing that the most fundamental problem in biology was about finding the source of life, I started to study life itself. I tried to revive corpses of animals into life with water, and I found that water had the power to temporarily give life to a frog. I conducted the same experiment to a mouse, a cat, and a dog. The final step was to revive human life.

I collected corpses from a graveyard near my house, and put the pieces into their right places like matching a puzzle. Then, I inserted the perfect human figure into water and added a special potion. The machine started to consume water, and I could see how the corpse changed into a living thing. The corpse suddenly contracted to a ball, and then turned into a human form by absorbing water. When I saw the creature created by myself, I was astonished. The tardigrade was once more swimming in my mind. But, similar to when I was an astronomer, the tardigrade quickly disappeared.

I was obstructed by many problems. Does the creature deserve the same treatment as a human being created by a human mother? Should the creature know ethics or law? What is the creature, or is it even a living thing? These problems were outside my capacity. I failed again to find the tardigrade. If someone was capable of well describing the tardigrade, I would have hoped God to bless his brightness.

Have you ever seen
the garrulous tardigrade
a trillion of them
each with a trillion stories to tell
If you gather all of the gems
that these talkative creature yell
that we might just be able to
fill up an encyclopedia too

I realized that I only focused on the sciences. However, starting to study humanities was too burdensome because my age was already 40. I felt that my brain was becoming inflexible and my learning abilities decreasing. I determined that the easiest way to expand my interest to the humanities was becoming a writer.

I decided to write about what I knew the most. Because I knew a lot about the universe because I studied that subject for almost 15 years, my first novel was about people travelling the universe and learning about the nature of time. I blended all things I knew about time into my novel. In the novel, time changed when the characters passed a black hole, and some recent discoveries about the universe were reflected in the novel. So the universe was very well described, very close to its real appearance.

While writing a story, I found out that I had too many things to tell. Ideas spurt out of my head and I wrote the story with one stroke of a brush. I realized that I was putting my thoughts about time and the universe. As an astronomer, I only tried to find out the facts. However, as a writer, I could include not only the facts, but my opinions. In my novel, I stated that the universe was so vast that one individual was smaller than a grain of sand when compared to the universe. I also implied that because humanity is so small compared to nature, humans should never boast that they are intelligent and great.

People told me that Time Travel, my novel, was great. They said that my descriptions about the universe were delicate. Scientists told me that the universe depicted in my novel was accurate, and was delivered in an easy way to understand. Novel critics said that my novel contained profound ideas about the identity of humanity. They said that my novel was the “standard” and “ideal” of all novels. The tardigrade swam happily in my mind, in a new way.

However, the tardigrade disappeared again. I had so many stories to tell. I felt that Time Travel did not include all the stories I wanted to tell. I became a writer who created new stories everywhere, all the time. But nearly 75% of the stories were instantly proven useless, and the remaining 25% was proven useless when I started to write a novel with them. I had too many stories, but there were no useful stories. I had to create new and developable stories, but it was too hard for me. I thought that writers who easily write complete novels were born with talent.

When I decided to quit my occupation as a writer, I was already 65 years old.

Have you ever seen
the dreaming tardigrade
who dreams of seeing the light
a light so bright
It can make wingless animals like me
to experience flight
Just like the Wright,
sometimes being fright,
but always the thing right?

When I attended high school, I listened to a philosophy class since it was a required course. Because I thought that I would be an astronomer, I did not listen to philosophy class carefully. But I still remember one story that my philosophy teacher told me.

People were living inside a cave. They were tied, so they could only see the shadows on the cave wall. Because they were accustomed to darkness, they hated light. They also thought that light was harmful because light made their eyes temporarily blind.

One day, a person cut the rope tying him and escaped the cave. He could not see the light because he lived a long time in the dark cave. But he could slowly open his eyes and see the objects outside the cave when some time passed. He was surprised to see that objects had diverse colors, contrary to the monotone shadows on the cave wall. After seeing the objects outside the cave, the person returned to the cave and told people what he saw outside. The people who lived their whole life inside the cave did not believe him and accused him as a liar. He was a philosopher.

The moral of this story is that philosophers see the true world outside the cave, but normal people often only see the fake world. Philosophers try to describe the real world but the mass do not believe them.

The philosopher’s job was to find the tardigrade. They always dreamed to see the light outside the cave. I wanted to become a philosopher, but it was too late. I was too old. I noticed that I could not be a professional philosopher, but I thought about philosophical problems when I had free time. I thought about what is humanity, what is life and death, how should a person live, and why people struggle about their existence.

I sometimes had answers to these problems. When I had answers, the dreaming tardigrade was swimming in my mind. The tardigrade was also emitting a very bright light. The tardigrade gave me wings, enabling me to enter the ideal world full of tardigrades. I was sometimes frightened to meet the tardigrade because it was so bright and great. However, I knew that the tardigrade was always right.

For the most of the time, I was a wingless creature. I seldom earned answers to these questions, and more inquiry proved that my answers were not complete. I was obstructed by the ultimate wall. My instinct told me that I could no longer continue searching the tardigrade. I was too old and weak, and I experienced difficulty learning new things. I had to stop.

Have you ever seen
the mysterious tardigrade
because I haven't
Not having a single idea
about what those guys are talking about.
I can be sure about one thing
They're not good at describing.

Look! There is the tardigrade. It is rapidly swimming inside my head. It looks like an astronomer. No, it looks like Aristotle. No, it looks like Plato. No, it looks like Newton. No, it looks like J. K. Rowling. No, it looks like Arthur Clark. It changes its form every second. It is like a boggart in the Harry Potter novel. I cannot tell how it looks like!

I see a similarity in these figures. It walks very slowly. This is the reason why it is called the tardigrade. While walking slowly, it changes its form. I see people living in the future. They are philosophers studying death. No one ever studied death until I lived.

It is celestial, marvelous, and garrulous. It is dreaming. It is continuously thinking. It is walking, very slowly. Wait! It is trying to talk to me.

“There are human beings who try to find us. They should search us slowly and calmly, just like we walk. Some geniuses try to find the tardigrade with the short and easy way, but we tardigrades are mysterious. Keep these words in your mind.”

Yes, the tardigrade was right! Why did I always try to take the easy way? The tardigrade cannot be found by studying only one field. The tardigrade continuously moves from one field to another. I tried to find the slow tardigrade while running. Naturally, I could not find the tardigrade because my speed was not synchronized with that of the tardigrade. No one can find the tardigrade in his lifetime because human life is so short. Many people should devote themselves and accumulate their knowledge when searching for the tardigrade.

I finished reciting his poem “The Mysterious Tardigrade.” My father told his story while I was reciting the poem. He was a true genius, but he was never satisfied. He achieved great things on every field he tackled, but he failed to find the never-disappearing tardigrade. He began to speak, with great effort. The shadow of death was slowly approaching him.

“My son, continue searching for the tardigrade. Most people stop searching for it when their education is over. Most of them are lured by money or honor, so they deviate from the happy and painful search of the tardigrade. Nevertheless, people should search for the mysterious tardigrade.”

After saying this, Mr. Strauss, my father, no longer breathed.

Some days passed, and his funeral was conducted. I looked at where he was buried. His epitaph came into my eyes.

Here lies Arthur Strauss, the genius of the millennium

An analytical astronomer, a devoted biologist, a descriptive writer, a dreaming philosopher, and a human who continuously searched for eternal truth

“Nevertheless, people should search for the mysterious tardigrade.”

-Arthur Strauss

I could see the tardigrade on my father’s gravestone.