Focus on what you have rather than what you lack!
Photo is water lilies at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis.
Gratitude #4
Wine and Life
Life is good
Wine is good
Life is short and you only get one
Wine is plentiful
So is wine better than life?
In Bordeaux in August I took a lot of photos of grapes. This is the best one.
Conversation
“Conversation and information do not directly correlate.”
When the tide is out there is no fishing from this town in Bordeaux. The quote is the result of a conversation between Gene B and I about guests. Lots of conversation is not informational it is anecdotal or worse.
Postcard of the Week
Queen Elizabeth II
Long Live the King
I remember Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. We got at least two day off school. On one of them we went up to Gloucester Road and watched as she and Prince Philip drove past. We all waved and I had the clear impression that Prince Philip waved directly at me. I bragged about it for years.
My brother Tom won a prestigious science award and met the Queen. I’m hazy on the details. I have a photograph (pre-digital) of my brother Matt shaking hands with Prince Philip at a boating event.
I once took a pee in a urinal right next to the one that Alan Alda was using. But don’t hold me to that because I mix up my celebrities and my memory is failing.
An Adventure
Apple in the advertising for their new Apple watch use the tag line “Adventure Awaits.” At the beginning of the month we got back from a trip to Europe which included a river cruise that also included the tag line “Adventure Awaits.” Since then I have been trying to define adventure. I know I want adventures but I’m not sure what exactly what they are and how you find them.
Websters calls it “an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.” This definition would include a trip to a Circle K in South Phoenix but would exclude most organized tours. A rafting trip down the Colorado River would be an adventure even if it was with an organizer. What about an off road Jeep tour near Moab or a solo off trail hike to an unnamed peak in the Tonto National Forest.
Note the brass seashell in the pavement. It indicates that I am hiking on the Camino de Santiago. And in fact I did for about 30 feet. But if I did the entire length from Bayonne to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela would it be an adventure?
Perhaps an adventure is a relative experience. For someone who has never been swimming in the ocean snorkeling is an adventure. For an experienced Scuba diver snorkeling is not. For a baby its first steps are an adventure. For a healthy adult a neighborhood walk is not an adventure.
People think of Zip lines and Jet Skis as adventures the first few times they do them. After that not so much. All I can be sure of is that a life where you seek adventure is more interesting than a life where you seek security.
Art
“A good espresso is like a work of art.”
Italian folk saying
I know the photo is of a very artistically made cappuccino not an espresso. The broader point is that simple things done well are works of art. Consider a well made bed or well ironed shirt. Photo is from a coffee shop in Santa Fe NM in 2013. Time flies.
Tap and Pay
The use of Tap and Pay in the UK particularly and Europe in general is far ahead of its usage in the USA. The implication of doing transactions entirely without money are enormous. It make things like a subway or taxi ride seem free until all of your credit is used.
(An Apology) To see the photo you will have to click on the title and go to my blog page until I solve the curious fact that photos are no longer being attached to my subscriber emails.
In Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely he cites studies that have shown that people act differently with money than with money substitutes like gift certificates. Tap and Pay which because of its convenience will become ubiquitous will change this relationship. Maybe for the better but maybe not. It is definitely another step away from State control of the money supply.
Change is……..
Solutions
“There are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs.”
Thomas Sowell, American Economist
Photo is from Green Park in London looking north from Buckingham Palace.
Depletion
The copper mine in Bisbee Arizona closed when all of the easily obtainable ore was mined. Nobody much cared. The miners moved on and a future Ghost Town was created.
The Oyster fleet in the Chesapeake used draggers to catch most of the easily obtainable oysters and the area and the nation went into a paroxysm of worries and “solutions” to the problem.
Why is one a problem and the other an event. My friend, Mark V, introduced trees as another resource that we attempt to manage. Clear cutting of trees is economical senses and they will grow back. But we recoil from the short term ugly result and the degredation of the ecosystem.
We grow corn and wheat to harvest. Most of the Salmon sold at Costco is grown in pens. People have a built in set of rules about what we feel is acceptable to do to the earth.
Deer once plentiful in Upstate New York were almost gone by the early 1990’s now they are abundant again. The black bears have returned to Southern California to the delight of some and the consternation of others. It is easy to predict what the response will be when the brown bears (grizzlies) return.
Zebra Mussels have cleaned up the Great Lakes but they are invasive and therefore bad. The Asian Carp are in the Mississippi water shed and we oppose that and we’re fighting a losing battle to keep them from getting into the Great Lakes.
Men are in charge but we can’t control multiple variable problems very well and we are in conflict about what result we want, as the above examples show.
Language vs Acts
