He was perfectly content with his job, he liked gardening.
He’d been the gardener at a local school for some time. He found the work rewarding and would be paid the occasional compliment about how nicely the grounds were kept. He also liked reading, mainly books about the sciences. He was always searching out television documentaries on the subject. It was on one of these evenings when he went to bed quite late after watching a science show. He woke with a start in the middle of the night. It hadn’t been a nightmare. It had been a dream. He was wide awake with questions running through his head. He got up and sat on the edge of the bed remembering quite clearly the questions from his sleep. He began to recount them.
Do we need to know more than the fact that living things are required to interact in order to maintain life? Do what we call sociology, economics, philosophy and religion promote this? Do we need to look beyond these to understand that life is about chemical reactions? Do biology, geology and astronomy give us a greater understanding of this? Do these subjects further our understanding of why particles form molecules? Are physics and chemistry telling us why particles, forces and fields interact? How heavily are we relying on the fundamental science of physics?
Why should such questions be so important to him? There was obviously some kind of unfulfilled need going on. During the day he gave it a great deal of thought, while making sure he concentrated on his work. However, being a lone worker without any direct supervision certainly gave him both the time and the opportunity to think.
That evening he used his computer to get information about how to study with the Open University. He soon recognised his need. He would study online for a degree in physics!