“When can I get an actual book?” my friends ask me, and it reminds me again of how long creative projects take. The ideas and inspiration can take seconds but the implementation–years. In fact, lots of things take longer than we can ever imagine, especially if interrupted by much that is outside of our control. It was a lesson I thought I’d learned during the pandemic. When it first appeared in March of 2020, no one had any real idea how long it would last. Looking back now, we see that the messenger RNA vaccines that became available in December took no time at all. In fact, that’s part of what created suspicion about them. How much testing could have possibly been done to make sure they were safe?
I came across a television interview with the two scientists who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October of 2023 for the Covid 19 vaccine and learned that after a chance meeting at the copy machine, it took Katalin Kariko’ PhD and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD 15 years for their visionary laboratory partnership to make an everlasting imprint on medicine. Dr. Kariko’ has spent her entire 40 + career on messenger RNA. And all those things along the way that interfered make Kariko’, just in time for Women’s History month, a poster woman example of what must be overcome to keep going on.
Born in Hungary, Kati, as she is known to her colleagues came to the United States 40 years ago but for decades did not have a tenured position, working in “soft money” research assistant positions and having to relocate whenever the money or sponsor moved on. Her husband, who is not a scientist would tell her, according to an account in a terrific 2021 article by Gina Kolata, in the New York Times, “You are not going to work–you are going to have fun.” A businessman, he once calculated that with all the hours she put in at the lab she was earning about a dollar an hour. Kolata’s interview quotes Dr David Langer, a neurosurgeon who has worked with Dr Kariko’, “When your idea is against conventional wisdom that makes sense to the star chamber, it is very hard to break out.” Her ideas were definitely unorthodox and ahead of their time.
I wish someone would have told me, earlier in my own career, what it takes for a creative in any field to keep true to their vision and keep going on. The suffragette Susan B Anthony’s claim that “failure is impossible” may be true but pardon we women for wondering if such accomplishments will happen in our own lifetimes. Using Kati’s career as a model, the keeping on happens when you’re doing what you love and having fun in the process. I can agree with that and pass on to the next generation a trick I’ve discovered through my own career–just the right music, played at the right time can lift you up and carry you over the rough patches in the present discouraging terrain. (Try the Keep Going Song by The Bengsons – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs-ju_L9pEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs-ju_L9pE
