On the Nonreactive

By Luisa A. Igloria on June 29, 2024


The noble gases are helium, argon, 
neon, krypton, radon, and xenon—stable 

and unreactive, rarely combining with other 
elements. Were they named after aristocrats,

who hold themselves apart from the hoi polloi? 
The past is filled with stories of scientists, 

writers, artists, and intellectuals who were either
independently wealthy or poor geniuses who

enjoyed sponsorship from a monarch or a wealthy 
patron. The noble pursuit of knowledge requires

some means: to stock a lab with equipment, collect
novel specimens from the other side of the world,

run experiments over and over again. Buddhists say 
it's better to be nonreactive, to cultivate a demeanor 

not of callous indifference, but of dispassionate 
observation. If I were gas, I know I wouldn't be able 

to call my nature noble—I react. I'm the type who wears 
her heart on her sleeve, cries over every hurt, large 

or small; rants and rages even about things I clearly
have no dispensation over. There's a UK company 

selling "Salt Made from Tears of Sorrow"—I wonder
where it's gathered, and if more is harvested from 

mothers, or from children. As for me, I can only hope 
the harm I've done in this life is outweighed by the good; 

that the times I've been a brat or a bitch or a pain or
have made someone cry tears of misery are  altogether 

fewer than the times I've been of use, the times I've
kept myself open despite the possibility of a wound.