the rock from space

At first it just looked like pain, this black stone I'd coughed up. But under the green glow of the emotional spectrometer, more elements were visible. Thick veins of loneliness and shame streaked its surface. This was an exciting discovery! My colleagues and I had for many years been searching for a pure source of these elements. Theories as to their nature filled the many books of our library and were shouted against the panelled walls of this vaulted institution.

Pulling from my own modest studies, I shall try, in layman's terms, to explain what it is that makes these elements (the term element is not precisely correct, for shame is actually a compound) so fascinating:

Loneliness comes into being only in the darkest reaches of our universe. It arises naturally in areas of total non-interaction, where particles of matter are divided by vast distances. There is no bumping or jostling, things simply hang inert, against the cold vacuum of space.

Shame, as I've stated, is a compound. For, when loneliness reacts chemically with any other substance, regardless of its properties, shame is always formed!

Next time, perhaps we shall discuss the highly theoretical (controversial and probably dangerous) process by which loneliness can be converted back into normal matter.