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Sunday, September 30, 2012

The little we know


I have stopped being amazed at the enigmas ancient civilizations pose to us modern people.  Out of the jungles of Mesoamerica emerges a metropolis that has a temple with a square base that is the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza.  The base held a half pyramid but the size was the same with tunnels dug throughout (just like the Egyptian pyramids).  It  was amongst other great stone buildings which were configured after part of a constellation (also like the pyramids of Giza).

It's also pretty symmetrical that they are half a world away from each other and date back to roughly the same time.  If the two happen to be connected, then there is one site for the side of the planet facing the sun and one for the side in the dark at any given time.  One notable difference is that the stones used to build the Mesoamerican city contained mica and transparent quartz throughout it all.  Mica has properties of withstanding heat from radiation, the kind used for spaceship reentries through the atmosphere.

Perhaps, the explanation of such phenomena includes alien help in our ancient history, or perhaps, it merely means the humans had access to much more than we know about, that they were very advanced and then, for some reason, they were destroyed and humans lost some prior knowledge and had to start over again.  Either way, the history books need revising.

Life gives us wonder and beauty if we but look hard enough, and sometimes those two elements are not at all found in what we expect but derive from what is surprising.  We end up playing the "what if?" game to see if the surprises could be true.  I like the taste of the "what if's" that have surfaced and they tantalize me to keep looking for what could underlie our simple understanding of times gone by.

Friday, September 28, 2012

When success smiles

J.K. Rowling just released her first novel written for the adult audience after achieving a phenomenal reception from the younger audience for her Harry Potter series.  I wish her success in her newest venture because I love her story.  The new book is supposed to reflect much of her story with a character that lives at the bottom of society's classes and tragically dies at the end.  Rowling's own story contains a twist that the character's storyline in the book doesn't experience, though, since Rowling is now wealthier than the queen of England and Oprah Winfrey.

It's hard to believe that Rowling was receiving social welfare and facing the challenges of single parenthood when success smiled on her.  In a recent interview, she recounted those days with great pride saying that that series of events had to happen for her to be where she is today.

That's true for all of us.  Our lives' events shape us and get us to the next step.  Sometimes our next steps leave us rather lacking in some facets of our lives.  But, even the Sahara Desert is on alternating cycles between lush green jungles for a while and windswept sand dunes for an equal amount of time.  The goal is at least once to have achieved some part of the dreams we have had.  Then, contentment is possible.  My hat is off to J.K. Rowling.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Smarter about the allure


The Middle English period in the history of English had to be some hard times for the people of England.  The Danish clans had spent 500 years populating their new-found island and learning to live alongside each other.  Their clans had all come from an area that feuded,warred, and killed each other for about the same length of time.  But over the last 500 years in a new land full of opportunity, the clans finally learned to live together.  Their leaders were rough and rugged.  Their storytellers told of times when they had to conquer or be conquered.

Then their world changed.  The Anglo-Saxon clans had valiantly fought off Viking marauders for over 100 years, but an invasion and subsequent victory by the French allowed them the entrance to the throne in London.  From that point, all the royal names, events, and documents were written in a tongue quite foreign to the inhabitants.  However, the farther from London one went, the more resistance to French one found by the very traditional landowners of the countryside.  Near Scotland, the people said they would never learn the new language.

From this resistance, compromises were made with the language that resulted in a blend of French and English.  It could have been called Frish or Englench, but the people of the countryside were determined to retain the basic elements and name of their language.  So, English (after the Angles version of German) stuck as the name.  During the 500 years that followed, the blended language of French and English refined itself partly due to a very French idea.

The development of ecclesiastical authority and its associated language of Latin coexisted with the French invasion and subsequent blending of French with Anglo-Saxon.  So the word tempt came in simultaneously with the French idea.  But tempt was too benign for the French speakers (and so religious sounding).  They wanted to show all the intrigue, trickery, chicanery, and Machiavellian intent behind people's actions.  The French were such a devious lot after all.  They introduced the idea of tempting someone through great efforts at manipulation with the word allure.  So, the leaders of the nation began to allure the people into better ways of living to show a distinction between what they had been used to and what was possible under the new regime.  And it truly worked on several levels.  At one level, feudalism lost its grip first in England because of the allure of having more for their families.

The ploy worked of course on more than one level.  Allure came into the language as a verb (lurer=to entice, to seduce) but comes to us today in both verb and noun forms.  Over time, the noun form has supplanted the verb form as the most common use of the idea for allure, but that just means that we've become more passive and turned the action into the name of a sporting event (turning skill into a craft).  We know this because allurement is a noun form also found today.  The expansion of a noun into a second noun changes naming an action to the naming a general class of events (-ment).

From the rough and tumble world of the first English speakers to the more passive modern world we live in now, the action of "go and conquer" has evolved into the name of "come and see the benefits of the house that desire built."  I have to admit to falling prey to the allure of the American Dream.  But, that turned out to be just a dream.  I am now a whole lot more selective in what allures me - really only one thing.  But, I'm waiting for the noun to turn back into a verb.  That might be a while.  Reversion in language doesn't happen very often.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Backstory

Everyone has a story.  It doesn't take long in life to realize that everyone has faced adversity and overcome some kind of obstacle.  Adulthood makes seasoned veterans of us all.  The beauty of getting to know others is learning the backstories that season them. 

I spoke with a young man today who told me of his life outside the U.S.  It's quite a tale.  The first 17 years of his life were spent evading drug cartels just to stay alive.  Even after migrating to the U.S., he had quite an adventure.  He's lucky to be alive.  I learned more today about the tenacity of the human spirit.  I gained an esteem for someone I didn't know before.  I learned a little more how my own story fits into this world of billions.  I learned more about what kind of face I have put on and want to put on for others.  And I learned a little more appreciation for the events that combine to form the present for people, the backstory that doesn't get presented very often.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

End of days

The kitchen, dining room, and study lights are off.  A low light in the living room casts shadows down the entryway.  The guest room doors are shut, but it is dark behind them.  Night set in three hours ago on the outside of the front door.  The day has wound down along with all its activities.  Tomorrow begins early; the work day starts at 8:00.  Sleep will last the customary 6 hours.  The day has been as productive as it needed to be and was restful enough for rejuvenating from the day before it.  Another day has ended.

But it is the time of day for smiles to linger because of some the beautiful moments during the day, for time alone to enjoy mental pictures of really important and pleasurable times that need to be seen again, and for a moment to look into the mirror of review for the day so that the next one can be at least as good as the last one.  Then oblivion comes.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Accidents of fortune


Being at the right place at the right time has proverb status in America.  It usually is used when something good financially happens, but it is also true of other happenings.  Tonight I want to reflect on the good fortune of right place and right time showing up as inspirational signposts on the road I have taken in life.

My first encounter with inspiration was with a Greek scholar.  I sat in his class for a semester and a half before he died of a heart attack.  Anything I may have gained in translation principles and language acquisition after that point, I attribute to the inspiration from this man.

Fifteen years after this man another man appeared who taught me about language behavior in society.  I had thought all along that language behaved by a strict set of rules.  That, I now see, is a far cry from the truth.  The person was not inspiring in and of himself, but he presented all the literature I had never read about language as it is spoken by people in societies around the world (as opposed to language presented in grammar books) and fascinate me with personal stories of his own work with people in various societies.

Eleven years later, I found myself once again in the class of someone world renowned for his knowledge of language and translation.  I loved every single second of his classes.  They crowned what I had learned a quarter of a century before.  He lent the expertise I needed to carve out a niche of my own in the language world.

Then, a couple of years ago, through an accident of fortune, I had a chance to spend several dinners and a few days with two of the nation's top historians, one on world history, one on U.S. history.  I loved being around them because they reminded me in all our conversations of how open to interpretation everything is that happens.

I'm sure I would be meekly minding my P's and Q's if I had not had these four chance encounters with five men who changed my philosophical viewpoint and inspired me to always consider as many factors as possible for what I see in life - even things that appear counter-intuitive.  Reflections of my experience with them serve as markers along the way to drive my performance to the highest levels I am capable of.  I thanked each of them at the time of our encounters, but my true thanks will be with the work that I have left to do in life. 

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Off - by more than a little

Before the turn of the century, the NFL players decided to hold out against the owners for a season.  The league's answer was to have replacement players.  The season was pathetic, but there was a certain appreciation by the fans for having a season even if it was pitifully played by the replacement players.  Here we are a great number of years later and this time the referees are holding out for the season.  Again, the NFL has supplied replacement people - college referees who want to call on Sundays, basically.  The attitudes by the fans are different this time.  Many comments are being made about the chaos and disorder being allowed on the field.  Brawls are breaking out among players.  Balls are not being spotted on the correct yard lines.  Consistency from one call to the next is absent. And even if chaos is not reigning, incompetence is.

In business, if incompetence exists for very long, profits are lost and heads roll or doors are shut.  In law enforcement, incompetence costs lives.  In education, incompetence of the system causes a whole generation to have to be reeducated as adults, costing taxpayers millions of dollars unnecessarily.  In government, incompetence leads to stalemates, global weakness of perception, and reversion to "glory days."

That's why I love being around those who are efficient, informed, thrifty, and straightforward - competent.  It's tiring to be around those who act incompetently, but so refreshing to mingle with those who are competent.  Refreshing and desired.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Reminders along the road

Whew, that was close!  I was sitting at a dead stop on a rain-drenched freeway at night.  Two lanes over a car parallel to me was also at a dead stop.  Unfortunately, the car behind the stopped car two lanes over didn't notice in time that the car ahead of him was stopped.  I heard the scraping of the locked tires along the wet surface as the car behind slid into the car parallel to me, not at a fast rate of speed, but fast enough to make a crashing noise and see the front car slide down the highway about 3 feet.

Fortunately, the accident didn't occur in my lane and include me.  Since that time - only two weeks ago - there have been 3 more wrecks in the same stretch of road.  The last one was severe.  Such scenes make me think, of course.  When will my turn come?  When will my time be up?  Life can be going along so normally when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the end happens or something devastating happens.

Well, I've been down the road before with a good number of people who are no longer walking the Earth.  One day they are alive, the next day they join the billions of people who have come and gone from the face of this Earth.

I'll never forget driving through a small town about 9 years ago and thinking of a friend who lived there.  She had had cancer for about a year.  I drove through the town, but felt a nudge to turn around and call her house from a pay phone.  (This was before cell phones were so available and coverage wasn't everywhere).  So I turned around and talked to her about 4 or 5 minutes.  Then I continued the trip home.  The next day I learned that she had passed away.

I'll never forget seeing another friend of mine in the hospital.  She had come to my town from another town pretty far away to have surgery.  Something told me I needed to go see her, which I did on two occasions during her stay in my town.  Two weeks later, I received a text that she had died.

There are a number of other instances.  But, I am constantly reminded that every day when I wake up and breathe air, I should be grateful to call my friends by name, to enjoy the sun, to enjoy the rain, to kiss my daughter, to smile every time my granddaughter looks at me, to celebrate someone's special occasion, to enjoy feelings for the ones I love, or to make a call to someone who needs encouragement.

Someday, the call will be to my next of kin rather than a call to me.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tribute to the different drummer

Archaeologists have found a great number of bones that date back a really long time, in excess of 20,000 years.  What do we as modern humans make of these bones.  Some of us deny that our methods are good enough to discern how old the bones are and say that the Earth cannot be that old.  Some of us cautiously approach the findings by saying that dating something that old needs corroborating evidence and look to artifacts and ancient settlements for further proof.  Others embrace the methods and results and construct a story that reads much differently from the myths, fairy tales, and ancient holy books.

There's a correlation of these three responses to people's world views, of course.  Those in the first group "look at things as they are and ask why" while those in the third group "dream of things that never were and ask why not" (Robert Kennedy).  Those in the first group find joy in meticulously following the rules in place, while those in the third group are driven by visions of the results of questioning everything.  The second group vacillates, naturally, with the prevailing winds.  They find themselves not understanding, so they make up things like the world is flat and the Earth is the center of the universe.

All kinds of people populate our globe, so it is really six and a half billion combinations of the varying degrees of the above three positions.  But I do know I am not a part of the "safe not sorry" group.  And, although I find myself at the mercy of a number of mysteries about life, I don't like to linger in the blissful world of ignorance if I can help it at all.  There's a beauty in "hearing the music of a different drummer, no matter how distant or far away" (Henry David Thoreau).  Viva all the kindred spirits of group three!  Where would we be without them?

Monday, September 10, 2012

That suitable score


"Game-changer" is a term to tell how something is going a certain way, then all of a sudden, the direction is changed or the momentum is changed.  So, routines are developed to keep people on track. Because life has a lot of routines in it, it's easy to keep going the way we are headed, even to drift aimlessly without direction.  But routines are not good when they don't allow us to always see what's best for ourselves.  That's when a game-changer is needed.  Most game-changers happen when they are not invited and are least expected.

Only twice has a game-changer happened to me that I wanted or invited.  They changed the way I thought and acted a whole lot more than the ones that occurred without warning or invitation.  I'm certainly amenable to a third wanted game-changer.  The score of the game I'm in right now needs a turn-around.  It's time for that "changer" to happen along to make the score more suitable!



Thursday, September 06, 2012

Silent punctuation

Silence can mean a number of things.  Sometimes silence means approval, sometimes disapproval, sometimes ignorance, sometimes the stroke of brilliance.  Silence can be diplomatic or it can be the greatest snub.  It can mean that no information has been transmitted or that someone doesn't know what to do with information that has been received.  Silence interpretation always depends on context.

One thing is for sure, though.  No matter what the context is, silence always has a meaning.  People use silence when they want to noticeably make a loud statement.  My publishing side has spoken out of its silence; it wants to be resurrected.  I will accommodate that soon. 

And, other areas of life have been deathly quiet as well.  There is an interpretation for each of them.  Like punctuation gives tone to a sentence, so silence adds to the tone of these life areas.  But, the tone is troubling, so in my mind, words echo down hallways disspelling the brooding tone.  And I smile because those echoed words come from a time before the quiet, fill my head, and give me rest for the night.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Snap, crackle, pop or ho hum?

December 21, 2012.  The day will start, but it is not supposed to end.  The Mayan calendar is specific.  There are no days beyond December 21st.  Specials on the history channel have touted the day as if the calendar is certain.

But as the world spins closer to the end of humanity, I don't see a lot of concern on the faces of the people I meet every day.  The Mayans are no longer with us, but they were so advanced in their knowledge of the stars that some have given credence to their calendar.  In fact, their empire is being dug up a little at a time, and the places being found are numerous, organized, large, and advanced.  And, no one can say with certainty what happened to them (although speculation is in no short supply).  One of the possibilities is that they all disappeared  at once.  Now, that contains some fascinating options.

Well, whatever happened to them, they surely left an intriguing piece of information behind.  At the very least, a new epoch is supposed to start.  And, at the most, it's over for humans.  I look forward to seeing what is going to happen.  The next epoch of human history, which is my favorite interpretation of the calendar, should be outstanding, maybe something in science is about to happen to send us to the next level of civilization.  That couldn't be bad.  This particular level has run its course.

In the event that the Mayans disappeared out of ignorance of dealing with Nature (so they starved in a drought unlike any they had ever seen, which is suggested by studying ice cores), December 22, 2012 will dawn like any other day.  The Mayans just didn't plan well and couldn't predict a catastrophe beyond what they could handle.  That makes their calendar a bit of a fantasy table.  It was a good novel in their culture.  I'll go to work like any other December 22nd.  And I'll enjoy the rest of my days because every day is a good day to live and holds enjoyment either in reality or in memory.  And that's worth a daily note of celebration.