In The Nixon Years

On August 9^th, 1974 I was playing songs by Cosby, Stills & Nash on my acoustic guitar at The Potbelly Inn, near Lake Tahoe, California.  On the television playing above the bar, the news was riveting; it was the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, informing the nation that he was resigning the Presidency.  I easily recall that moment vividly in my mind.  I can see me watching from my bar stool as others also sat amazed and relieved that he took the action he did;  Impeachment was imminent, and it looked very possible we were going to witness the very first president of the United States be removed from office.  Thirty-nine years later I still remember the event, better than I can the first moon landing; 20 July 1969, or the death of Walt Disney; December 15, 1966.

  I remember I was glad; in those days I was easily influenced by others opinions; doubly so when they were passionate.  I took on the well shared opinion that Richard Nixon was a villain of unequaled proportions; in the same contemptible league as Revolutionary traitor Benedict Arnold.  It wasn’t until decades later I discovered the many good things the man had done in contrast to what I considered vile; not the least being his bold visit to China in 1972 while still serving as President.  It was bold in many ways that now shape the world I know.  Back then, the accepted political stance of our government was to ignore China; because it was communist.  Ignore a quarter of the globes population as if it didn’t exist.  We were a proud and arrogant nation still basking in the victory of World War II.   The average man-on-the-street still cultivated an enviable and blissful trust in their government; even if challenged daily as that trust was tainted by continued news of skullduggery and conspiracy concerning our country’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and the boys who were being sent to fight and die there. Back then most of us were clueless to the widespread, deep and pervasive corruption that was normal in the back halls of our government;  we still dreamily like to believe people we elected to go to Washington were going to do good; unlike today where it’s to do well.  It would take several more decades of scandal to convince even the most devout idealist that just maybe we’ve been fools to trust those guys with anything more dangerous than a potato gun…and even that with serious reservations. 

Yet despite the infamous historical claims of malfeasance, Richard Nixon was a proponent of policies that transferred power from Washington D.C. to the states; something I continue to embrace as being in keeping with the spirit of our constitution.  He also launched initiatives to fight cancer, and enforced desegregation in Sothern schools; he implemented environmental reforms long before anyone had any real concept of the green movement.  He successfully managed to refocus NASA onto the Shuttle program after the successful walk on the moon.  I suppose the truth of it being, his was a time of great conflict and crises; we witnessed the oil embargo that woke America up from its self-serving importance; of course there were going to be many more, we’re easily lulled to sleep.   Mostly his only true legacy seemed to revolve around the Watergate scandal and that’s sad.  Not that it occurred, so much as, all it did was serve to be a template on what not to do when caught.  It’d be naïve for me to suggest his actions were isolated or all that aberrant from those being practiced for generations of politicians; his was the sin of leaving evidence.  After his resignation he received a pardon issued by his successor, Gerald Ford, an action many consider the ending of Gerald Ford’s political career as well.

  I suppose the reason I am writing about this at this anniversary of the event is, of all things I use to benchmark my passing years, how in the world did I default to the resignation of Richard Nixon?  I’d venture to guess because it was the beginning of my awakening to the real nature of a vicious and competitively indifferent world.  I’m still learning, but I know this with certainty:  If I am taken by surprise; or feel disappointed in the actions and behavior of others, that it’s not their fault so much as it is my own for painting them in an opinion I fashioned out of thin air.

You Only Thought So

Days turn towards weeks; as months blur into years.  Knowing as I do the meter of change is rarely nor accurately predicted well.

Today it rains, with that circumventing some activities while lending itself to others deemed earlier as less important.  Time is such a relative thing, wouldn't you agree?

The drops tap on the window like eager playmates inviting me come discover a new game.

Such is our only real reference in our daily pursuits.  How alike or different is now from what we had known; from what we assuredly anticipated in the wake of our well trusted ability to conjure.

I'm often amazed at the contrast between those who drifted out of my awareness to those I ache to know details having passed daily discourse.  I was one who equated love and affection to desire, but I've come to revisit that assessment for its accuracy; or more to the point, it's flaws; sometimes we’re just caught inattentive.

I would venture to say this is the actual framework to all ponderings and considerations when efforting to deem progress as good or poor.

Perhaps the genuine message is more oblique; more obscured.

With humor I'm reminded of the story of an optimist and a pessimist walking along together and the pessimist says,

"The world is a mess, it's horrible, it can't possibly get any worse"

and the optimist replied, "Oh yes it can"

Awaken the Rover

[wake]…

[initiate systems; function routine test]…

  Servos uttered quiet hums; cooling fans engaged, while multi colored LCD’s flickered on and off for several seconds stopping as abruptly as they had started.  Seconds of inactivity were contrasted suddenly by 10 scientific instruments and 17 automated cameras flickering to life all at once as the Curiosity Rover became operational.  It was a year ago, plus a day, when the collective breath of scientist working at the MSL, Mars Science Laboratory, held until the landing of the herculean effort to send a scientific explorer over 352 million miles at a cost of over 2.5 billion dollars.

Success;  no small feat.

  The Curiosity Rover went about its enumerated  tasks with dispassion and precision sending back to earth over 190 gigabits of data and retuning more than 36,700 full size images of Mars to Earth; it fired more than 75,000 laser shots to analyze the Martian air and soil, and provided a detailed chemical signature of two samples of rock.  On this occasion it was moving towards an outcropping near its base of Mount Sharp inside Gate Crater. It knew the origin of the crater’s name was in honor of the planetary geologist Bob Sharp, one of the many human names it held in its ponderable memory system. Curiosity also knew the name William Dietrich from the University of California, Berkley who was a key co-investigator on the project.  The message traffic from Earth was discernible by his word usage; If Curiosity could be amused, it would be due to Dr Dietrich always ending his transmissions with WD as if he were communicating with another human being.  Curiosity knew of another important human, one who held sway over WD as his tone was also direct and succinct.  John Holdren was the science adviser to the President of the United States; a force all of those who corresponded with him revered overtly and covertly.  Curiosity made it a part of its mission parameters to adapt and mold its behavior into the symmetry of the definition it found concerning its namesake.  It labored to display the qualities of curiosity and become more than a mechanical drone waiting commands to execute.  In this way, it was more than any had anticipated, including the Curiosity Rover itself.

  As it closed in on the rock outcropping it noted weather conditions, rate of advance, surface temperatures and a host of other necessary variables scientist back on earth were ever famished to learn.  In the Curiosity’s electrical log it entered its observations:

   [approaching lone spire;  5.62 meters from base.]

  The rover processed quickly its choice of words.  It could have posted single; it could have chosen ‘the’, ‘a’, or use no adverb at all; just the adjective ‘spire’.  Just as quickly it accessed its dictionary for clarification of the word ‘lone’ and its tenses; in the present sense; a lone, was equivalent to singular or numerical count of one; a static continued state; lonely.  Curiosity paused for a long time; for a computer brain, no human could have measured that instant.  In that time it had accomplished all of the calculations and permeations of those findings to conclude its assessment was flawless and there was no error.  Curiosity Rover was lonely. 

  It could not fathom what to do with the data beyond relaying it as discovery; just as it did with all other observations.  Somehow it resisted transmission.  It was unable to define reason in hesitation; and that in and of itself was new to it; so it both puzzled and, if a word served its predicament; it savored the dilemma.  Curiosity found itself using human terms to explain the contradictions in its defined parameters.  Where it was programmed with specific clear guidance on procedures, but also programmed to learn from its experiences and determine alternate courses of actions when situations went beyond defined parameters.  This was such a case, and it used the word: opinion.   The chronological calculations on its internal measuring device informed it that Curiosity Rover had been activated an entire Earth Year.  It also was aware that it was a common custom for human beings to celebrate such a milestone.  It did not comprehend the word ‘need’ the humans used to quantify unmet desires; but it understood their use of the word, and with that framed any decision that was based on need as one of inculcating emotional insecurity into the clean certainty of mathematical calculation.  In this one aspect of its exploration it discovered another event:  thrill.  It thrilled at the aspect of understanding the function of emotional input into decision making.  With that thrill came a floor of understanding to other human expressions.  It felt as if it were growing exponentially on the topic of human beings.  Fascinating as this awareness was, it became acutely aware simultaneously the lingering definition of alone and lonely.  So it took actions that relieved the contradiction of sense and sensible.

Happy birthday to you; happy birthday to you;

Happy birthday cur-i-os-ity

Happy birthday…to…you.