Musing

Thanks so much for remembering my birthday... How are you?? Sorry, I haven't written back sooner but you know, sometimes life gets in the way.. I couldn't possibly be that busy.(this seems to be a bit of a disconnected narrative) . I did notice you took me off your musing list a long time ago. I'll try to catch you up. About a 18 months ago I was over visiting my Daughter in the Seattle area and was changing the baby (18 months old) She has 4 kids now (3 adopted) I pulled off the baby's wet shirt handed it to his sister (4) She was helpfully standing right next to me observing. "Ashley, honey, please put this in the laundry". She looked me straight in the eyes and in her high pitched little 4 year old voice, said "No". Well I was floored (she had no idea, who she was talking too, I used to spank her Mother after all). I explained to her that if she didn't do it she would get a "time out" and if that didn't work I would spank her. She immediately complied. Well about 3 hours later (same scenario) I was changing the Baby again and called on her older brother ( 8 ) to do the laundry run (that baby is always wet it seems). "Xavier, please run this to the laundry". He looks me full in the face and says "No". I am once again stunned. These small people have no idea who I am. With Xavier, I skip over the "time out" part and go immediately to the larger threat of ‘do this, or I will spank you’. He complied immediately. What this made me realize was that if I wanted to have any kind of relationship with these kids, I needed to be closer.. I couldn't be just "the bossy lady that visits a couple of times a year" So last summer my spousal equivalent and I (we've been together 3 years now) started looking at property over here. After 18 years in Idaho, we bought a house jointly and moved last November. So we now live in Rockport Washington, in the foothills of the Cascade mountains. We're about an hour from my daughter (just the right distance). All my kids except the youngest (he's finishing up some college) are over here. They're all doing well. I'm really enjoying getting to see the kids more. It's wonderful. So enough about me - how are you and the kids?? Your Dad?? Your Love life? Gusta?? I know I could go back through the blog but this is more personal. Looking forward to hearing back from you , IA, Rockport, WA

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re: discovery - Wow! What a feast! First of all, in my view the human learning curve is not asymptotic, where we are approaching the limits of human understanding, but exponential; the more answers we reach the many more questions arise, but answers to some of these are also found. For example, after Newton's Principia, it was thought that nothing new was left to discover in physics; and after Einstein's General Theory of Relativity punched major holes into Newton's Laws, and quantum mechanics became known, we were faced with a barrage of questions that have not yet been answered. And certainly the above holds true in the medical field, with which I am more familiar. I disagree with you; the journey IS all it's about. Many people will not agree with me on this I'm sure. Good luck in your passion for discovery. I share it, EG,Calgary

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Reply to EG - Sure there are lots of blogs and email responses. But as Mark noted, actions are few. Somehow in the past people were able to form a critical mass of support for change and heroes emerged and/or politicians were forced to listen etc. Or sometimes a group learned that too many people disagreed with them and they could not get the change that they wanted. There are many opinions about why a critical mass of support so seldom happens today. But whatever the reason(s), my point was that the critical mass of support for change is not emerging in today's culture, LHE, Calgary

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