Please welcome Nathaniel Sewell, author of the futuristic political satire novel, Fishing for Light.

DNA: Is there a magic code for success?

by Nathaniel Sewell

Seriously, I think there IS a magic success code hidden within our helical shaped DNA strands. Let me be specific, there are those among us who are gold medal winners at the mercurial DNA Olympics. Personally, I would be content with being a bronze medalist, think about it; at least I got on the podium stand, right?

But that is not true, I am highly competitive. I would get bummed if I busted my guts out, and did not win the gold. And then the Olympic committee did not play my countries fight song, and I did not get to cry tears of joy for the worldwide network television cameras. And god forbid if another American won! I would hate the fact I was standing there like a cutout character direct from central casting trapped watching that other humanoid, queue the fake smile/ ‘I am so happy for them’, and thinking they would be getting the entire future endorsement drachma, loot, dinero, and getting their happy mug shot on a box of cereal, gettin’ paid – Cha-Ching! It would suck.

But wait, I was a success, at least relative to ‘other people’, right? So, let me get this straight for the slow kid, that would be me, my DNA code was one-tenth slower than addle brained Paris’, who is the hot, blonde babe, over there at a made for TV awards show, shaking her perfect god given behind for the camera, living in a mansion, and I get stuck on the short-buss to school, right?

The answer is, WRONG!

From my novel, Fishing for Light, a big part of the entire premise comes from my own observations about those ‘lucky people, you know, those DNA Olympic champions’. If you have a slightly cynical, twisted brain like mine, consider, the next time you are stuck standing in line at the grocery store. I recommend you take a good, hard look at the colorful celebrity magazines, conveniently placed next to the check-out line. Clearly those lucky few have the ‘success genetic code’ splattered up and down their DNA strands.

In Fishing for Light, I even had the character, Professor Quan create a Wish List of famous people he wanted to collect a DNA sample from. I mean, Elvis had to have magic DNA. Of course, I jumbled the names, but I think the reader can figure out the ‘who-who’ I have fictionalized to make a point. I enjoyed jumbling the names, because in reality we are all a DNA jumble of ancestry, environment and life choices. I even answered this articles question, within the books description –‘is there ‘a magic code for success?’

“When Professor Quan realized the government used his genetic starter to create Ms. Prosperina, he devoted his life to eradicating her by spreading the universal bond within humanity’s genetic code, pure love.”

From the story, the main character, Eddie Wilcox, lacked the key hidden gene instruction for success within his DNA structure. It is the single base thought, feeling, verb that separates the masses. At the risk of writing something, sappy, dime store novel like, the answer of course, is ‘pure love’.  Eddie lost the light behind his eyes after his father’s sudden death. And the point to the story is how he got his spark back, groove back, and all that jazz to then have the goods to fight evil, Ms. Prosperina.

I think we all have the capacity to love unconditionally. Notice, I wrote, to ‘love unconditionally’, and not ‘to be’ loved. I think that is the sucker’s bet and why ‘Reality Stars’ even exist. They are not successful in my view; in fact, I think most of them are rather, sad creatures. I think they simply play to the Roman mob, which would be as Jim Bob might say, “this here peoples, United States of America”.

If we start to look at the world from the inside out, and not the easy, safe, voyeuristic view, I think we will feel a sense of our own success. If you seek love through other people, you have already failed. I think the answer to this riddle is hidden deep within each of us, pure love – to love without condition. Success is not defined based on money, fame or prestige. To this author, success within our DNA structure means to have the genetic instruction within our soul to love ourselves, unconditionally.

NS