Ones and Zeros

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday.  And of Darwin’s birthday too.  The man who freed slaves in the US and set American democracy on the course of increasing freedom started his life today.  He also, at great cost, kept the country together.  He gave his life to his cause too.

Darwin also brought freedom.  But this time the freedom was in thought, to consider how life developed and grew to fill the planet as a natural process instead of one handed down by religious authorities.  He kept scientific though moving forward instead of dividing in a civil war of what can and can not be considered.

Neither man did the work by themselves, both relied on others to implement and fulfill their work and both stood on ideas prepared by others.  But both, for better or worse, have come to symbolize the battles that they were part of.  So here’s to both of them and here’s to our efforts at keeping their work alive and building on it.

Well, it’s over.  The recovery from the “February Fury” (as one TV network dubbed it) has begun.  The combined total of storms over the last week dropped 45 inches of snow (114.3 cm) here.  My local airport tried to bounce back during the week.  They were open for less than 24 hours before they closed again.

This is the most snow I’ve seen at once.  And the most I ever want to see.  Can’t wait for spring!

(Note: Next Monday is has snow predicted.  Again.)

I had a nice big breakfast of oatmeal with honey, raisins, banana, and chipolte pepper powder.  I meant it to be cinnamon but the bottles of spice looked a lot alike to me right then.  I ate it anyway.

Not bad at all.   A good way to wake up certainly.  However I’m not planning on doing it again anytime soon.

Pilots that fly past their destination airport in Milwaukee. Or, back in 2008, pilots that flew from Honolulu to Hilo, past Hilo with not enough fuel to reach the continent.  Fortunately, the latter woke up and turned back.  Apparently so did the former too.

These pilots lacked awareness since they were asleep (at least that’s my guess).  But we can lack awareness for many other reasons.  Walking to my car I was thinking of calling my wife, what I was going to tell her, wondering what to have for dinner, and watching the traffic on the road I was to walk across all as I took my phone out of my back pocket.  I fumbled my phone and dropped it - hard - on the brick sideway.  My iPhone no longer had it’s usual screen, but only a while screen with abstract black lines.

Lack of attention to the task at hand is the cause of many accidents: cell phone use by drivers, texting while driving a train, dropping a phone.  Ram Dass, Timothy Leary’s lab mate, used to say “Be Here Now”.  He got that from the old traditions of Buddhism and it’s not bad advice not just for avoiding accidents, but for many things.  People who want to loose weight eat less if they pay more attention to their food. I enjoy more and remember more of anything when I pay attention.

In a recent post I talked about adaptation.  You can’t adapt if you don’t see changes and new patterns, and you can’t see that if you don’t pay attention.  As my wife tells herself - and me, “watch what you’re doing”.  I’ve taken it as a westernized version of “be here now”.