This Is Not a Stem Cell Item

Here is a snippet from a novel, "The Samurai's Garden," by Gail Tsukiyama, who lives not too far from the headquarters of the $12 billion California stem cell agency.

It is from a scene in a garden involving a young man and a much older man, Matsu. The exchange struck me as having something to do with the idea that happiness is the absence of pain. Here…