Conrad Memories from the Future

Circumstance 1: As I was going to create this post my mother-in-law, aged 95, developed bleeding. Circumstance 2: My 30-year old daughter approaches her 7th year of debilitating pain. Circumstance 3: My last blood work in the pandemic showed certain parameters going out of range. This is one aspect of what it means to be human, bodies work to maintain balance in a tricky world. Sometimes they succeed better than others and often we ourselves know how to regain that balance.  It might be to change diet, change sleep patterns or change activity.  Sometimes the worry about the problem actually is the problem. There are so many sources of "knowledge and wisdom" on the internet, some quite trustworthy and some obviously quite insane.  Some doctors are general practice, some are specialists.  Some hospitals and clinics are among the highest rated by both patients' reviews and good outcomes, some much less so. How do we choose among options and how do we know when to seek m...

  How many of you remember HAL?  The computer that decided that Dave was a bit of a threat to his mission.  Indeed, HAL had no compunction about killing his "crewmates" when he saw it necessary.  And, now, I drive one of HAL's grandchildren. This is a picture of one of my car's cousins eating.  Note, if you would, where its mouth is and understand that it eats energy (as do all of us, of course), but its energy comes in the form of electric current.  So, we have the main player in the drama set before you. On Thursday late morning in the Pacific Time Zone in America, each week I write my blog for the week.  This week, the topic was suggested by Maria.  But, before I began writing it this week, we needed to get the ash from all the fires off of our cars before it ate away the paint.   Below is a picture of that ash gathered on our trash can (normally solid brown) so you can see how insidious it is.  It clings like glue and then begin...

  Albert Einstein has become a cultural icon of genius and most people are aware that he came up with something called Relativity, but they don't really know much except that it is some really heady thing and kind of cool to people who don't live in the real world.  So they think! Einstein is one of my leading heroes of history and it is because he was not just quirky and brilliant, it was because at the heart of things he was actually a theoretician that could work wonders in his head and bring them down to earth in such a way that they could be proven true or false.  They weren't just nice or fun ideas, they were resolvable as facts in the universe.  And, oh the implications of those facts! Let's deal with one of his proven facts of Special Relativity (and I am leaving out the implications of General Relativity on purpose, even though some of what I explain, like the clock in orbit, incorporate parts of it).  I won't go into any detail because it requires way ...

A boy, quite close to his father, comes to him with a big question on his mind: Son: Dad, I've been thinking about the term "the sky's the limit."  Does it mean that we can do anything? Father: Well, let's examine it together.  Jump as high as you can in the air. (The boy jumps.) What did that tell you? Son: Well, I can only jump so high. Father: Can you go higher? Son: No. Father: But, what if I give you a ladder and you climbed to the peak of the house?  Would you then be higher? Son: Well, yes. Father: Did you do it through your own effort? Son: Yes.  And if I had a mountain to climb I could go even higher! Father: What would it take to go higher still? Son: A plane. Father: So, is there anything above that is holding you back? Son: No, I just require the means.  Like a ladder or a plane. Father: What would it take for you to go, let's say to the moon? Son: A rocket ship.  And being an astronaut. Father: Could you become an astronaut? Son: I don't know....

 Lordy, where to begin?  I knew retirement October 3, 2019, less than a year ago, would bring a new normal.  I just thought it would be somewhat incremental.  After all, I was only working three days each week, three long ten hour days that challenged an old guy, but it was something I liked to do and I like the people.  Each weekend was being spent at Napa caring for the affairs of my mother-in-law, 94 and still healthy although moving toward some kind of assisted living to be sure. So, October 3 showed up and I celebrated my 70th birthday with my wife and financial adviser (don't ask) and looked forward to the trip to Yosemite for the big celebration the next week.  And, that evening, my mother-in-law had a heart attack! We spent the next month rehabilitating her and relocating her to a board and care home near us.  That month was spent at her mobile in the midst of severe wildfires that trashed our air and cut our power eight of those days. November...

 Gilda Radner wrote an introductory story of a harrowing dilemma for a young woman in her book "It's Always Something" about her battle with ovarian cancer.  I do not remember it precisely, but here is its essence: A young lady attracts the attention of a pack of wolves and they chase her.  The wolves gain ground on her as she runs frantically, looking back in terror as they gain on her.   Then she trips! But, the wolves don't pounce upon her, for she has fallen over a ledge.  In panic, she grabs a branch sticking out of the cliff face.  Looking above, she sees the wolves waiting.  Looking below, she sees a fatal fall.   But, looking straight ahead, she sees ... a patch of wild strawberries. Picking one with her free hand, she tastes it.  And she marvels.  How sweet! This story was Gilda's guide on how to deal with the inevitable wolves we all face, the seemingly impossible dilemmas of the impending death in our future and the ...

  Above is the culprit and it is doing a real job on human civilization.  People die and people are wounded and economies crater.  One would think we were at war.  Of course, in a very real sense we are. But, the war is not just with Covid-19, the illness contracted from SARS-COV-2.  No, the war is with ourselves and the Covid crisis has simply pushed it to the fore.  And all of us see this war from our own cultural perspectives, for our own civilization surrounding us is what must serve us to emerge intact on the other side of the problem.  Being American, I will reflect upon the problem(s) from an American perspective. When traveling for the first time in Europe and later in New Zealand, I was naively surprised to find so much of the news coverage in countries visited was news of America.  Our world footprint of the time was vastly greater than I expected.  Along with the news was a great deal of popular myths surrounding that media presenc...