Ach.
I'm so proud of my family I don't know which to publish first. We will start with my nephew who is part of the CERN experiment in Geneva, on the front page of today's science section of the New York Times. He is likely missing an urgent family gathering in order to participate in this unique experiment, and I hope all will forgive him. This is history in the making. Godspeed [little joke about particle physics, and their speed]. Yo Alan!!
Only in this light can my cousin being featured in an article in The New Yorker come in second place. Did I mention we are a science and engineering family? My cousin is an expert on the Great Wall, which turns out to be a line not a wall, do I have that right David?
My own humble observation relates to my congenital surgery work in Russia. I have not posted much in the last few weeks because of being in Russia, trip #30, then recovering, then attending back to back conferences on congenital and thoracic surgery. Ho hum such a boring life :)
On my way home from that torture that is individual training at the gym, I saw an ambulance with siren and lights on stuck in traffic. Immediate impulse was to calculate how to eliminate the obstacles. It struck me, that's exactly what I do in Russia. Figure out what are the obstacles to saving more lives, and slash thru them. By the fired o'glake if necessary.
During this aha moment the song on my radio was Josh Groban, a beautiful addition to any moment, but it seemed to describe how I am trying to support the surgeons working in St. Petersburg:
"When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.
"You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.
"There is no life, no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But then you come, and I am filled with wonder;
Sometimes I think, I glimpse eternity."
*******
My cousin looking back over the millenia,
my nephew sacrificing something very dear
to come close to the mysteries of eternity.
Me, I'm just trying to wrap up the Cold War,
bring a great city and a rising nation
back into the fold of civilized countries.
It's only been, what, 100 years?
Psalm 90/Isaac Watts:
"A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone
Short as the watch the ends the night
Before the rising dawn."
*******
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3 comments:
Those geography lessons from the grandparents? Good going.
Hey egregious, how are you, now with sunshine and flowers of spring and all that?
Thirty trips? I'm so impressed with all that you do.
I'm reorienting rather slowly to life here and trying to sort my next direction. Need to get off my duff and away from the computer, methinks.
Daughter is graduating from college! Yeah! Son just got a book award from Washington and Lee and is now interested in that school for college. Do you know anything about that, being from that area?
I'm really not that interested in having him go to the South for school; old antipathies die hard sometimes.
NZ hi and congrats on your daughter! That's a real rite of passage.
Washington and Lee is on a beautiful campus and is good academically but you will need to look into whether the political climate fits what he wants. They are probably a little old fashioned but people that have gone there really like it.
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