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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

My lot is through a lens


The History Channel has been running a special program on the search for life on Mars for the last 9 months. It's an interesting documentary. They talk about the history of Mars in which one era had the right ingredients for life. It has long, long since disappeared. They talked of the images on Mars' surface. It appears that traceable channels and lake boundaries still exist there on the planet. But, the most compelling evidence comes from readouts of methane gas on Mars, which indicates that organisms that make methane gas could have or still do exist on Mars.

I would love to be able to take a vacation on Mars (even the moon for that matter), but I don't think that will happen in my lifetime. I would love to live on the moon or Mars in a colony before settlement takes place on either body. But, that would happen only toward the end of my lifetime. So, I look from Earth through telescopic lenses presented on television and on the internet at a celestial body that I would really like to inhabit and dream of what could have been had I been born a generation or two from my location in history. Life tantalizes us like that. But, it keeps us young in mind to explore and dream and wish.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Hot wind only on the outside


Tonight the wind is high. I can hear it rustling through the leaves of the tree right outside my window. It's been blowing for about 3 hours now. The rain, thunder, and lightning rumbled in the distance a little earlier. The most we got out of the clouds was the smell of rain. Not a drop touched the crisp, brown blades of grass that still form a yard.

So the hot wind blows. Yes, hot because it has barely slipped from the 90s at this time of day. That's hot enough. But spring was totally different this year. I blogged about it back in March. I knew the summer would hold something extreme or irregular. And it has. The reason for the brown grass this year, even in the park nearby, is that water rationing has taken place because of the severity of the drought. So, a person can't just turn on the sprinklers at will.

The events of the year have been about like the weather... extreme, irregular. But, the beauty of the year is inward, in my thoughts. There it is green every day. Waterfalls come to mind regularly, feeding rushing rivers that produce the swirls of thought that freshen my mind and life. There is no such thing as a drought there for my thoughts are fed by the springs of a familiar voice. The events of the year, regardless of how barren, are light years away from the scenes accompanying the voice in my mind. The events may blur the vision, but they cannot dominate the landscape of my mind.

Let the hot wind blow. It's on the outside of the window of my soul.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Truth in proverbs


There is a saying in America that patience is a virtue. I have seen that the platitude is true. Another saying follows on its heels, "Good things come to those who wait." Waiting and patience go hand in hand sometimes even if they are not equivalent terms . Another adage close in meaning to the above two is that something or someone is worth waiting for. This, of course, doesn't happen often, which is why there is a proverb capturing its truth.

These three proverbs work closely together. If something or someone was worth waiting for, then of course, something good would come from waiting, and patience would have been a virtue in that situation. I have been told I am patient. Maybe that's true. If so, then it's a virtue. It would mean that I have the ability to wait for something or someone... a moot point, of course, if I had not ever thought or said that something or someone would be worth waiting for. But it is not a moot point for I have thought and said that. It is the truest thing I have ever said.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Soft rain



Ray Bradbury wrote a short story called, There Will Come Soft Rains. It is a story about realized dreams of reaching planets in space and having regular space travel. The title is an analogy about how sweet spring is when it arrives like the sweetness of the arrival of regular space travel. The USA is not quite to the level of regular space travel as a means of transportation to other celestial bodies, but almost. I can see the rest of the story from my place in history. But, I do like the title and what it is an analog for.

The meaning, there will be a time for dreams to be realized and how sweet it is when it happens, is also indicative of how to rise above the ebb and flow of life. First comes the dream or the great hope. Next comes the regular work, taking into consideration that regular work is how the goal, the object of hope, is reached. Then comes the regular gauging of the intervals that serve as the milestones toward reaching the dream and realizing the hope. Finally, comes the day when the soft rains begin.

It's the only path that works in realizing a dream except for encountering dumb luck. And, since I am very, very, very short on dumb luck, I have to rely on the one-step-at-a-time plan. The second step above is the step many people cannot do. It takes patience and discipline. Both drive you crazy, and it is true that some dreams do not get realized. So, being driven crazy is a hazard of working hard to realize a dream and failing. But living daily is hazardous to your health, so I'll be satisfied with being crazy, because you can never see around the corner. And, who knows but that your realized hope lies around the very next corner. Soft rain is so sweet to hear.



Sunday, May 22, 2011

A new take


Sometimes you hear words all your life but narrowed to a certain situation, never outside of a certain context. Then, out of nowhere, you hear a couple of words put together that you have never heard together. I was in a doctor's office not long ago and a nurse practitioner came in. He was entering notes about the condition into a computer and was talking aloud to himself as he typed. He came to a couple of words that I had heard in other situations, but never had I heard the two words together. He uttered that the bane history consisted of blah, blah, blah...

I've heard bane, and I've heard history, but never bane history. That's all right. I knew immediately what the combination meant. My mind wandered at that point for about 15 seconds. I had always heard of bane used with the word boon, as in Every circumstance has a boon and a bane side to it. Then, I thought about what could be written if the nurse practitioner had said boon history. Of course, I wouldn't be in the doctor's office if he was writing my boon history.

But I have a boon history. It's the history of the one who makes me better than I am, who puts the sunshine in my day, the laughter in my world, and the happiness in every second of time. I'll have to remember to use that sometime... boon history.

I have a bane history, for sure, and it's not just relating to health although it certainly affects health. And, I was just going through life, living my bane history out when I suddenly hit the boon era. Love it when that happens, and I definitely loved it when the boon era came.

Yin and yang, boon and bane, mountaintops and valleys. Life sure has them. But I have enough of the bane history already written. I'm glad to have encountered the boon history. What a difference it makes.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Treasuring Yellowstone



I don't know exactly what the allure was to going to Yellowstone National Park, but I think it was everything that it offered. by the time I was 15, I had visited Yellowstone 9 times. I enjoyed seeing Old Faithful, the geyser that erupted in water spouts every hour (at that time vs 90 minutes now). I remember the bears that inhabited the campgrounds and picnic areas. Sometimes they would cross the roads and back traffic up because people would cut their engines off and start taking pictures or trying to feed them. One trip I counted over 100 bears. Regularly I would count over 70. (Today people make trips without seeing them at all). One of the main features I enjoyed was the hike to the Paint Pots. Different colored mud came boiling out of the ground in spots. Sometimes the mud was pink or orange, sometimes it was dark brown and rust, occasionally ruddy red. I remember also staying at the foot of the majestic Grand Teton mountain in Jackson Hole Wyoming. I could hike around on the lower elevations of the mountain, always dreaming of climbing to the top. Jackson Hole would have a actors at dusk ride out on horseback and act out a shooting in a saloon and an hanging in the town square.

Today I look back on the Yellowstone experience and see good times, full of beauty and excitement. Even though they are days gone by, they were and still represent the good that life has to offer. In my adulthood, I have been able to recreate that experience only once... days of beauty and excitement. I looked forward to what each day would bring during that time period... days as idyllic and majestic as the outline of the Grand Teton on the landscape, as colorful as the Paint Pots bubbling from the ground, as spectacular as the heated water of the geyser spewing 50 feet into the air at regular intervals, and as mesmerizing as the bears crossing the roads by the picnic grounds. And because the Yellowstone experience has been recreated only once in my lifetime, I hold it in the highest of highest esteem. It is sacred ground. Nothing can touch it.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Viva la heights


How big a part does personality play when people are together? A lot. Some people you know from the outset that you don't need to be around. They would drive you to insanity or violence or some other behavior that doesn't benefit healthy living. Others you know you could be friends with since they are compatible in some way, morally maybe or philosophically. And there are personality types all up and down the personality spectrum. While there are precious few personalities that are entirely compatible with your own, it's still a little onerous when you are forced into a situation and you have no choice or limited choices on being around someone who doesn't share some of the key personality points it takes to peacefully coexist. They're just a reminder of how low on the roller coaster ride one can go. The good thing is that roller coasters have high places on their tracks as well.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

A day for the best


Today is the day for mothers to be honored. They are truly the hub of the home when they don't let selfish desires take them away from what mothers do best. I had one of thsoe great hub mothers growing up. She has always believed in my abilities and has given encouragement for my writing and educational endeavors then and throughout my adult life. Happy Mother's Day to her.

And speaking of the word best, there is one mother I know that embodies that title. She is above any mother I have ever seen. She makes sure her children know not only what the school has to offer, but what life has to offer. She makes opportunities for them to serve others. She seeks opportunities for them to be well-rounded and be exposed to interests that have immediate benefits and long-range ones.

She is the best! Bar none!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

Staying too long


You can be somewhere too long.

That's a lesson I have learned on a number of occasions. The lesson is nicely illustrated when investing in the currency exchange. Once a position is opened at a certain price, you predict that it will either go up or down from your opening price. There's no turning back once the position is opened. So, if you predict that the trend will be upward, and the trend goes up, you make money. If you predict that it will go downward and the trend falls, you make money. But, if you open the position and the price trends in the opposite direction from your prediction, you lose money.

I have opened a position with a prediction, and the trend went the opposite direction a number of times. The immediate thought is to stick it out and the trend will turn around. Many times that is true. But, you can stay in the doldrums too long. Bad things happen when that occurs. You can exceed your margin for one. Then you automatically lose your money to the brokerage house. I've had that happen. Or it ties up your money for so long before the trend comes back that you lose out on having enough margin for other money to work if it had been available instead of being allocated for the deep sleeper to turn around. Or you could be at historic highs or lows. The price will never be that low or high again, so no turn around is possible and you lose.

The lesson is that you can be in a geographic location too long, in a job too long, or in a relationship too long. Bad things happen. Waiting for the turn around always costs. Fortunately, there are patterns in the way prices move just as there are in the rhythms of life. Most of the time the patterns prevail and you make money or enjoy life.

But, you can be somewhere too long.

Friday, May 06, 2011

Goodbye to words


The evolution of the way knobs and buttons in a car are marked for identification is one of the best ways to show how thinking changes over time. When cars first came out, knobs and buttons were not identified, especially the crank, which was on the outside of the car. Everyone knew what the crank was for whether or not it was labeled. As car companies began marking their buttons and knobs, they would spell out the whole word beside it or above or below it. Then, the companies began abbreviating, like A/C for Air Conditioning. Finally, symbols were adopted for the buttons and knobs. Now you wouldn't ever see Heater or Htr, you would see two slightly off parallel bars with waves in between.



The reason that represents a change in thinking is that it shows that people react faster with fuller comprehension to symbols than to letters for words or abbbreviations. We live in a visually stimulated world where rapid reaction is required. Ask any gamer. I look forward to the next 10 years as visual stimuli becomes ever more the way life will be arranged. Goodbye words, which slow the reaction process down.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

By comparison 2


I was talking to a friend about an attorney who only accepts two or three cases a year. It' s always a high stakes money case taken on contingency so that the stakes can be higher by winning. Over the course of the last 12 years, this attorney has never lost. So, he has amassed a huge fortune from the contingencies he's won. He's also good at investing, so the money he has won has multiplied considerably.

His wife has a housekeeper, two nannies, a yard and pool man. She flies to Paris as if it were only a day trip. She takes her friends to concerts and buys them front row seats for 3-5,000 per ticket. a five dollar bill is a nickel to her.

By comparison, my life is quite average. I am a part of the middle working class. But stories like the one these two people live keep me in line if I ever for a second think I might have arrived in some area or another.