Have Mind Will Travel

The reader might immediately connect this to the more popular phrase and 1950's western TV series "Have Gun Will Travel' (starring Richard Boone).  Actually the phrase, "Have X will Y" was likely the generic origin ascribed to a lot of things in early 1900 idiomatic expressions.  It was  more likely about "having the necessary tool and willingness to travel to do a job, for example".  But "Have Mind will Travel" does make sense today in the midst of the quarantine and lock down that had become necessary for a lot of us.

Many of you who would rather see the glass as half full may already have found ways to make the most of the current situation.  Aside from binge watching favorite TV shows or engaging in total Facebook immersions or perhaps committing to picking up the once forgotten hobby or just simply starting one, there is one that costs the least in resources.  Engaging the mind and have it travel can be that antidote to quarantine fatigue.

The mind is one powerful tool.  Alas, we often  take it for granted.  Often it is neglected.  In fact, the mind could easily shift to the lowest gear, or worse, disengages to idling once the TV is on or when we get ourselves into a mindless routine of thoughtless ruminations, to the rhythm equivalent of doodling during a boring staff meeting.  What are we to do in times like these?

First, count yourself blessed if when this is over, you can walk, you can drive, you can go to a lot of places and very much do whatever pleases you.  But think.  Before this all started there were already countless folks who had been going through worse.  In nursing homes there were already thousands upon thousands of souls locked down to the confines of limited living spaces and restricted physical activities.  Before this, wheelchair bound folks  and those living at home but too old  to do certain tasks because of one physical deficiency or another have been going through what we are politely admonished to do - "shelter in place".

We can learn from some of these folks.  It was found  in some studies that  folks described in the previous paragraph who do well despite the physical limitations are those who never stopped to "travel". They don't mope, complain or feel bitter.  Instead, all along they knew how to let their minds go on a journey.  They've realized  that physical barriers to travel were no match to the leaps and bounds the mind can and will do, if allowed to step out of the finite into the infinite expanses of the mental universe. Sometimes these travels are short treks down memory lane or far into deeper pondering but never about "what could have been" or "what ifs" and certainly not about regrets or second thoughts.  They do very well even if they embellish the trips as time goes on.  That reminds me of the phrase, "History of the war is written by the victors".  Well, these folks, if they got to that point in their lives are already victors of many wars, in a way. They survived every ailment thrown at them including the ravages of time and old age.  So at that point when they let their mind travel, they can write whatever history or story they want. And not necessarily for those listening because often there is no one there to talk to but for their own inner happiness as they step into the journey with their minds - the best travel companions ever.  These are the people who do well.

The ultimate traveler is the mind.  It can go forward, backward and sideways in time  and the entire breadth of the universe.  Anyone willing to try can do that.  At the least amount of time and money. Indeed, it does not cost anything and time is either compressible or expandable, short or prolonged.  Such is "Have Mind Will Travel".

There is only so much time one can spend at the work shop or whatever activity one is engaged in.  There is only so much to do with TV or computer time and the internet.  Well, there is that mental journey. Like in the H.G. Wells novel, "The Time Machine", one may set the time to whenever.  But unlike in the novel, where the machine sits at just one place, one may set the wherever to travel to.  We can talk about whenever and wherever in the future later.

Not too long ago, for example, while watching a concert on You Tube I wondered when I started to appreciate classical music. I ask that because I was not brought up where classical music was part of growing up as a child.  We didn't have a record player and I was in high school already before we had a radio. That was just shortly after we had electricity in the house.  In fact, by the time our house had a phone, I was away in college. I don't remember when our parents had their first refrigerator but it must have been while I was already away on my own.

The college was at the other side of the island.  Extracurricular activities included participating in college student government.  One day those actively involved in the student government, which I was, were invited by one of the college benefactors.  He was a very rich landowner of a huge sugar cane plantation just outside the city.  When the group arrived at his home, we were brought to a place that was not his main residence.  We walked to the middle of this sugar cane field where stood a structure.  That was his sanctuary away from the house and we were privileged guests there where lunch was going to be brought in.  It was a 4-cornered open structure with wide flow-through windows, well insulated roofing and hardwood floors.  In one corner was his prized stereo system.  This was pre-CD or Blue Tooth but he had the top of the line reel-to-reel tape player and the best amplifier money can buy.  He had speakers the size of a standard refrigerator strategically spaced to the sides. That was a his beloved possession we can tell.  And he knew too we were all curious how it sounded. At that time my music interests were Elvis Presley and the up and coming Beatles, like most everyone my age. 

Then he turned it on.  That was my first exposure to a kind of music I never knew existed that transformed a part of my music experience.  Don't get me wrong I still listen to regular popular music today.  But that afternoon, from those refrigerator-size speakers I heard what today is considered the most dramatic opening of any piano composition - Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.  That is still fresh in my memory like it was yesterday. Months later, at the university gymnasium (of all places) came a visiting musician.  He was an internationally acclaimed violinist.  The university did not yet have a concert hall, so the gymnasium was the best venue we had.  By that time my interest piqued so I went. The violinist played, "Meditation from Thais".  The gym was solemnly quiet as soon as he played the first few notes and remained still throughout the piece. I don't think the gym had ever been so quiet before and since then.  Those two musical pieces stayed with me. You Tube has so many versions of both.  Check them out when you have time. Look up the ones performed by Anna Fedorova or Khatia Buniatishvili - for better audio/video reproduction of the piano concerto.  Others though performed by much renowned artists were poorly recorded.

Mr. Teves, the wealthy landowner who at that time was already advancing in years still looked to me today as that gentleman with his white thinning hair that matched his starched white linen shirt and equally white cotton slacks welcoming us to that sanctuary in the middle of hectares upon hectares of sugar cane. If he was in one of many afternoons there, we were told, he would turn up the volume where the only other audience stood still, but pliant to the breeze - undulating sea of green.  And there Mr. Teves must have imagined himself as if he were in Section A, Row H, Seat 28, which is the ideal place to listen if one were in a concert hall somewhere in Moscow, Kiev or Vienna.  And I cannot forget the landowner's generosity to have opened that door to a bunch of college students, one of whom had taken a piece of that memory with him, to this day.

In that short vignette which my mind takes me to from time to time reminds me most of all the time of growing up very poor when what we ate from day to day would go from meager to adequate but hardly one close to even a fraction of sumptuous. That journey back in time  shows how powerful the mind is and how quickly it puts me in place every time I feel way too comfortable with where I am today . It will take you back to wherever and whenever you want to go but the mind could be unforgiving at poking you with bits of reminders.

Today, the one silver lining is discovering from all the technology tools available to us that can help even the most disabled among us.  Before all of these I considered You Tube as just one of those video wonders that I would consult to find out how to replace a broken laptop glass screen or how to diagnose what's wrong with appliances around the house or how to remove and replace a car part.  Now, I found out there is more to it than watching magic tricks or the latest in the gizmo world. 

Before going any further, I set aside, like in a lot of things today, the bad, the ugly or the politics and censoring or controlling of information on all media vehicles  because there are a lot more benefits, especially to those no longer able to physically move around.

An aging resident, even living alone, can now suddenly transport himself or herself to that part of the world they can no longer go to or watch what other people do with their time in pursuit of a hobby or livelihood.  There, one may see Grandpa Amu make stuff from wood and other materials with the most rudimentary tools.  Or, see how people find and cook their food.  It's all there. I call You Tube the audio-visual version of Google or Wikipedia.  Of course, it can also be as mind numbing as television or hopelessly tiring as Facebook but again, if one so chooses, it is eye-opening and mind boggling in scope when we consider what we can see and discover with a few thumb movements on the remote or voice command.

Let me give a couple of examples where one's mind may step into places never once envisioned possible.  Yes, we can do a lot of imagining but there is nothing like listening to a lecture being conducted right at the very same place where Michael Farady, the 18th century phenom who, with little formal education, shook the world with his work on electromagnetism.  The table on which he did practical demonstrations of what was then new scientific knowledge is still there, except that now a theoretical physicist named David Tong was speaking about quantum field theory.  That is amazing because as a viewer/listener you are right there in front row.  The place is at Cambridge University, England - the seat of many scientific discoveries.  That whole place was one day in my living room and for an hour or so I was mesmerized by that presentation which would have been impossible to experience, short of taking a trip, let alone get a ticket to enter that lecture hall.

Next, I was sitting in front of a math teacher in a regular classroom.  Here is what was fascinating about what he was talking about. He was expounding on what is zero raised to the power of zero.  I beg your pardon if I go nerdy on the reader here. When I was in college at about the same time many of the baby boomers were, that was a big no-no, a total non-subject or if brought up only meant ignorance of the basic math.  Well, in the age of modern pocket calculators, the lecturer just showed his audience that not only is zero raised to the power of zero worth discussing, it was revolutionary.  At least, to me anyway.  I will not spoil it but if you have a scientific calculator, or use one online, try first .2 raised to the power of .2, then keep lowering the number to several decimal points, as much as your calculator will allow. It reminded me of a favorite - a circle is nothing more than a polygon with an infinite number of sides.  True, and it is one of the examples of how or why calculus works.  Or, at least a great demonstration of so called limits in mathematical terms.

Speaking of limits, the worst mistake we can make is limit the extent by which our minds can travel. And the most important part is that we can do this regardless of our chronological age. If only we dare to let it go.

Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger were both accomplished and famous physicists but they too let their minds travel despite the extent of their knowledge.  Actually, what they were good at was do experiments within their own mind.  And just as well because what they conducted were actually beyond what their physical laboratories can do at that time nor was there the equipment or tools they could use to do it.  As it turned out many of their so called thought experiments were supported by actual observations or by modern tools decades later.

So, not only should we not despair but be thankful that we are alive at a time such as now because our mental travel is now unlimited as never before. 'Ol Albert and inquisitive Erwin, what they knew then now pales in comparison to what the average B+ physics major  knows or has in his or her finger tips to look at and understand.  

And I leave you with this. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan without ever stepping foot in  Africa.  Of course, he also wrote science fiction about Mars.  Naturally, we must mention too that Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote about far out subjects never even dreamed of by the learned scientists and inventors of their time.  All three are just examples of many others who were inveterate mental travelers.  And there was George Orwell who wrote in the 1940's a story that he imagined would happen two decades afterwards but he over estimated. "1984" was not going to occur until over three decades later than that predicted date. We are in it today.  

Still despite all of that  here we are and seeing the glass as half full we can be grateful that technology is not to be feared but to be used to "Have Mind Will Travel".

1999 Flashback ... 2099 Predictions?

Not too long ago I ran across from old magazines I've kept over the years one particular issue of Scientific American which grabbed my attention in the midst of most recent events. I had wanted to bring along one or two reading materials for a flight and the subheading on one magazine read as shown in photo below.

"THE FLU: NEW DRUGS BEAT KILLER VIRUSES"

Alas, like how headlines are often misleading or even disappointing, the so called new drugs were experimental and hopeful promises.

You may all have heard or read about Bill Gates' warning on viruses five years ago on his TED talk in 2015.  But this magazine, published twenty-one years earlier, was talking about the flu virus - a "bug" - and, of course, what was then the other bug - the famous or infamous, depending on one's opinion, the Y2K bug.  I say depending on one's opinion on the latter because Y2K was either much ado about nothing or indeed it was something worth all the hoopla to prevent one tech disaster.

Anyway, the magazine talked about possible breakthroughs on the flu virus.  That was over two decades ago and we all know the futility of such a quest - a lifetime vaccine is still not available, except for an annual shot to account for the virus mutation and variable strain -  and how easily it was forgotten until something like Covid 19 came along. As in most everything, society had and will always have a short memory.  September 11, or 9-11, 2001, not only has faded from our attention, opinions and attitudes rapidly changed or were revised for us by whoever has the podium or effective punditry.  Now, what used to be one uniting glue that held a nation together is now garbled by arguments and counter arguments that is no longer even relevant to today's new generation.

The quest for potential cures against the flu and viruses of all kinds and the urgency that it then had, sort of went by the wayside, as far as the public is concerned, or by the amount of attention and progress in the scientific and research community.  The context here is that unlike the measles vaccine or lifetime immunity from chickenpox after an infection, the flu vaccine has to be "renewed" annually.

Now, we have Covid 19. Lethal, compared to previous scourges in history, or is it just another of those soon to fade away from people's memories? This one though may forever change the course of the future of humanity.

We turn from the flashback of 1999 to what the world may look like in 2099.  This is assuming that Covid 19 is really that impactful and that we set aside the distinct possibility that it will be like any other of those events that are soon forgotten or whose present effects get swept under by the myriad other future occurrences that might effectively distract or re-direct our attention once again.  We can also assume that viruses will remain formidable as they have always been for the eons of time that they had existed and their ability to thwart every conceivable effort to stop them remains true.  And let us not forget that even bacteria that can be controlled by antibiotics exhibit invincibility. Hence, the nickname, "superbug" for some strain that is able to resist the common antibiotics.

1. The Medical Field

Yesterday was one turning point that could signal what medicine will look like.  I had my first video consultation with my primary care physician. And it worked.  With some caveat, of course.  Last week I got a call from my primary care doctor's office to schedule a video visit. It was going to be the first half of my annual physical.  Contrary to what it used to be, the stethoscope, the hospital gown, the physical probing and actual exam is only part of the annual check up.  More importantly, blood work and other lab tests are more significant together with the review of current medications and the discussion that follows. Electronic records are first reviewed by the doctor who checks into how current the patient's vaccinations are and how up to date other recurring procedures like colonoscopy, etc are conducted on schedule.  A good doctor also needs to probe into the patient's general state of mind and current emotional status, worries and concerns.  The conversation with the doctor is actually just as significant, which the video chat successfully accomplished.  That is how it went. Later I will go for blood work and urine specimen submission at a date after the crisis is over.  Meanwhile, the doctor sees patients from the comfort of his home-office while the patient is saved from having to drive and endure the waiting room routine.

Someday, video consultations will be so common, convenient and less time consuming. I recall a time when a wasp bite or allergic reaction to poison ivy could have been short circuited by a photo or video shot of the symptoms electronically relayed to the primary doctor who will immediately re-direct my visit straight to an allergist or emergency center (if the wasp sting needed immediate mediation), bypassing the visit to the primary doctor's office altogether.  I teased my doctor if someday Star Trek technology will not be far behind.  He concurred, it will be here someday.

2. The New Social Setting, The Real Cultural Revolution

There is no predicting what new technology will emerged.  But we can take a stab at what to expect from the new social constructs and cultural effects to follow after Covid 19.  If not totally eliminated, the handshake could be the thing of the past.  The Asian practice, such as the Japanese bow or the upright hands together, prayer-like, as practiced in India and Thailand, for example, are a great greeting alternative or sign of respect or reverence.  The hug that is a most recent widely practiced  phenomenon may suffer some kind of trend reversal.

It used to be that to be socially distant was not such a pleasant personal attribute but now social distancing shall be the first line of defense against future outbreaks of socially transmittable diseases or the better and prudent conduct for avoiding common infections.  What I will not comment on is romance related or what will happen on first and subsequent early dates.  Will holding hands be permissible?  Is the first kiss ... like I said, I won't comment.

"Crowd" will mostly be used along the modern phrase like crowd-funding or crowd sourcing but, as a matter of social policy, the crowd is to be avoided.

3. The Job, Businesses, The Economy, The Corporate Environment

The 1-2 hour commute to work could be a thing of the past for half of the future employees.  Before Covid 19, folks commute to and from work on average 1-2 hours round trip.  Much longer in densely populated urban-centered workplaces.  Before all of these we know that many workers drive to the office to be in their work station or office or cubicle and conduct their business looking at and working the keyboard and mouse and communicating mostly via e-mail or text.  In other words, they drive, endure traffic and the occasional weather, pollute the air, or suffer the inevitable crowd of mass-transit, and sit on a chair to do their task.  Today, we find out that they can do much of what they do every day using their desk and computer at home.

Factory jobs will remain but automation and robots will far outnumber people.  It is even conceivable some of these workers can "supervise" the robots from home.

Even more profound would be that new types of jobs not now currently even envisioned and new products never before manufactured will be done by workers doing jobs that do not yet exist today.  A lot of the economies will forever be altered to suit future needs. 

Companies that have so called headquarters can eliminate the expense of renting and maintaining downtown buildings, energy consumption on heating and cooling and  do away with the dreaded time-wasting annual fire drills and other emergency evacuation training.  Just think about this.  Corporation can divert the general headquarter expense towards providing employees the necessary electronic tools at home, give them "office" allowance for using their home/office and bolster morale through that economic incentive and with the employee saving more money by not commuting (except perhaps during the occasional meetings).

What about accountability or employee performance?  Actually, it will be a lot easier.  Targets can still be established and performance reviewed based solely on results.  The office politics will be a thing of the past. 2099 is roughly only three generations from now, so technology will help remove a lot of non-performance-related issues.

A lot of downtown jobs will go away, of course.  Watering holes and places to eat will melt away like ice cubes over a hot plate but social distancing in crowded restaurants will be 100% eliminated. Company sponsored health care costs will go down as insurance premium is re-adjusted and three-martini lunches are history forever.  Take out dining services will surge a hundred fold.

Rest assured the service industry will still remain untouched and so are jobs relating to all that cater to personal needs.  Unless everybody goes bald and stopped growing finger nails and toe nails, hair and beauty salons and barbershops will still exist, and we will continue to eat, so dentists and hygienists and internal medicine doctors, etc. will be around.  Plumbers and electricians will still be needed but sadly, there will be no need for dog walkers. Drones and bots will do that.  Auto shops will go away.  Not only will people be driving less, if something goes wrong car owners will just go get new batteries as they do now with the cordless drill and their future dog walkers.

Online ordering of paper products will generally be a good thing.  No more wrestling with those 4X4 behemoths multi-pack rolls of toilet and towel paper from wholesale clubs. Hoarding will be eliminated because online merchants not only can track your ordering average from normal usage so they can also appropriately limit them in time of another virus outbreak.  Actually, the county tax assessor's office will have the same information too since it knows the number of bathrooms in your home based on the property record registered under your name.  The Bureau of Census (currently collecting 2020 data) knows how many people are in your household so paper product hoarding will indeed be a thing of the past if such information is allowed as an anti-hoarding tool.

Either that or all future homes are required to be equipped with bidet only as a cleaning feature when cutting of trees is declared illegal and the paper manufacturing business is kaput.

4. Education and All Information Service Related Activities

Everything will be online so Google and You Tube had taken over the Library and all Federal and local records offices.  Fake news will have but a day's worth of currency since every information can be checked out with a few keystrokes or click of a mouse. Actually it could come to a point where fake news may travel only from its source by no more than seven screen views when it is wiped out immediately.  Remember, we're still talking about what to expect in 2099.  

The Teacher's Union may not like this but online education will be the thing.  Every child will be home schooled by Professor Bot. Once a year the old school building will be used by students coming in to take a qualifying test for the next grade level or for graduation.  Each home will have one room dedicated as a classroom - each grade level is represented by one desk and a monitor for each student and age group. No more school bullying and school buses and cafeteria food will no longer be the dietary scapegoat that  parents and teachers have come to believe nor will it ever be the source of torment by cliquish groups against loners and "weird" classmates.

Unemployed psychiatrists will work on social adjustment programs for students not able to relate to their peers or other people in general due to the inevitable lack of regular social interactions.  In 2099, who needs it? Well, unemployed psychiatrists will then be unemployable, will they? 

5. Sports and Entertainment

If the movie theater is not dead yet it is likely on life support.  By 2099, people will be talking about it as folks today reminisce about the the drive-in theater. Its demise can no longer be postponed and the days of the overpriced concession popcorn and watered down soda are deemed forever a thing of the past. In 2099 the multi-million dollar per movie actors today will be replaced by a group of movie animators and CGI techies who will produce screen actors and backdrops and panoramic scenes so unbelievably more realistic than can be experienced live by moviegoers. The new superstars will be known by their group name since it is likely such realism and complexity can only be done collaboratively.  No single actor will ably embarrass himself or herself during awards night since such events will no longer exist.

The new super athletes will be the descendants of today's gamers. They will be playing video sports - from baseball to football to basketball to hockey, etc - that will be viewed not by paying fans at a 70,000 seat stadium but by millions around the world via big screen TV and whose cheers and taunts will be collectively picked up and reproduced over the internet viewing arena and heard more thunderously than a measly 70,000 screaming fans at the stadium. 

Today's athletes will forever be used as CGI models of tomorrow.  But their athleticism will also be enhanced beyond what is currently doable. The days of stale peanuts, cold sandwiches and warm expensive beer and exorbitant parking fees will be etched in future history the way silent pictures and speakeasies are remembered today.

6. Wars and Rumors of War

If humanity makes it to 2099, then maybe it finally did the right thing or had come to its collective senses to make war an extinct longing for domination.  That is the biggest bet anyone - politician or ordinary citizen - could make today. To win that bet means what 2099 might look like as predicted here.  To lose that bet means humanity may never see 2099.

I think we've covered enough although I can think of several other scenarios as I'm sure every reader will as well.  To say that Covid 19 is a learning episode in our history will be an understatement.

Three generations from today will either have benefited or go through the same amnesia that previous ones were prone to suffer from.  The good news is humanity's ability to actually remember and acknowledge past mistakes and it is only by those little nuggets of truth that a handful of individual leaders in the past , today and hopefully in the future, did and will rely upon to insure 2099 happens.

The Days Our World Stands Still

Decades from now we could still be talking about the day Corona Virus Disease 2019 - otherwise known as Covid 19 for short -  forever changed our world.

This says it all. A near empty airport and a lone airline pilot walking towards an empty gate area

I took the above photo on the day we were finally flying back home.  One cancellation of our original flight, one re-booking that went rather well, and we were on the first leg of a two-stop flight. On the first flight, there were six passengers and a flight crew of eight in a 155-passenger aircraft. Two airline crew members were flying as passengers, perhaps just to get to their next airport and plane.  The second leg was not much better for the airline when the plane had ten paying passengers outnumbered by crew and other airline personnel traveling with us.  That about says, without any elaboration, everything there is to know about how the entire economic system of the whole world is grinding to a forced slowdown never seen before at this magnitude.

That is still the world today, repeated many times over, anywhere there are commercial airports, anywhere businesses - and almost all forms of commerce - are in eerie suspended animation.  Not entirely, of course, because grocery stores and marketplaces are open; thank goodness for that. There are vehicles on the road.  In short, life is going on, albeit muted and gripped by a new reality that is defined by, and for, everyone caught by the suddenness of a calamity farthest from anyone's preconceived list of worries just weeks ago.

Of course, not often seen, even by today's widespread use of news and social media, are the tireless efforts of healthcare professionals and emergency response personnel whose tasks are ever more made difficult, whose ability to keep doing their jobs is the only pointed spear against an unseen enemy.  They are the true heroes of a war not marked by exploding bombs or staccatos of gunfire but by the frenetic arrivals of ambulances at hospitals that are now the main battlefield. Every death only accompanied by the silence and lonely vigils of the surviving families because funerals and gatherings of mourners are discouraged.

This takes us to look everywhere for a reason why.  This takes us to question the very nature of nature even as we look for Divine protection and spiritual guidance.  We ask only why because to ask when it will end is at the moment unanswerable; to ask where the scourge will strike hard next is asking for one much too dreadful to contemplate.

But we can ask this.  Why is something so infinitesimally small be so deadly?  Why an invisible entity that is not even considered a living organism can end the life of a living being?  Why is one so simple as an invisible molecule able to render helpless and vulnerable a trillion-fold more complex organism that is the human body?

First, we look at how small. The first living organism to compare with is a bacteria. Try to imagine this.  A virus is to a bacillus bacteria as a tennis ball is to the entire tennis court. And that bacteria can only be discerned by a microscope. 

Let's put some more context we can wrap our fingers around. We have measurements.  The simplest element - the hydrogen atom - is a mere one tenth of a nanometer (nanometer is one billionth of a meter). The HIV virus is 100 nanometers but way smaller than a single red blood cell which is about 10 micrometers (a micrometer is one millionth of a meter). That means that our one red blood cell is 1,000 times bigger than the largest virus. If the average human is say, 1.6 meters tall and a meter is one billion nanometers, then we can imagine just how staggeringly minute the Covid 19 virus is. This virus is to the human body as a human body is to the size of the sun (and it would take 1.3 million earths to fill our sun). I am not very precise here but you get the picture.

So why?  Again, we have some context to fill. The deadliest creature - a living organism - is the mosquito. A tiny organism that we can swat but what makes it deadly is because it is a carrier of many virulent bugs from malaria to dengue fever and several others in between. But a mosquito is prey to other creatures - from fish to birds and other insect eating creatures.  So the deadly mosquito has a purpose in the food chain. 

Bacteria is not always a bad actor either.  In fact, useful bacteria is key to our  very own existence.  Remove the bacteria that takes up residence in our gut and we don't have long to live; and so do many other living things. 

But what is the purpose of a virus? I've always asked that.  But I am like many others who also ask why the avocado seed has to be so large? In the age of seedless water melons and seedless grapes I have yet to see a seedless avocado at the produce section.  It's a mystery. But that mystery would seem like a simple question compared to asking what purpose a virus has in this world.  Other than to wreak havoc on entire populations.

A grain of sand - a non-living material - can irritate the eye so we keep it away but even if it does get into our eye it does not trick our cells to make copies of itself.  The virus does. And the virus is very good at manipulating our own cells to use their own energy and vital resources to make exact copies of thousands upon thousands of the foreign interlopers. That is one of the most underestimated mysteries because when we think about it we, in our present form as a species, can claim the top rung of the evolutionary ladder.  We are the superior product of creation.  Yet, here we are at the mercy of something that is merely a collection of atoms that make up a molecule so tiny and so negligible next to a single blood cell but is able to cause all of humanity to practically stand still.

So, what is the virus really for?  Is it just virulent for virulence sake? We are not here to ask what our Creator had in mind but what can be inferred from empirical science is that simple and complex molecules preceded the earliest simple life forms by perhaps several million years.  Viruses were around before the first bacteria or amoeba began to exhibit what today we define as life. Anything that is alive must be able to consume nutrients, expel waste products, use energy and make copies of itself, either by simple cell division or procreation.  The virus does not do any of that.  It uses our cells as photocopy machines, yet why kill the host?  Indeed, why kill the very source that makes duplicates of itself?  And that's exactly the point because as perplexing as that seems, the virus does not kill everyone it infects. Third paragraph down is where I try to make sense of this phenomenon by asking once more.

Fossil records show that complex life forms emerged from simple ones and almost always, but not true every time, life kept improving as if the goal is to attain not only complexity but a seemingly never ending quest toward perfection. Perfection toward what the species was designed for. For example, the falcon's ancestors did not attain the fastest speed of 200 miles per hour on a dive overnight.  Neither did the cheetah's earlier version immediately run at 70 miles per hour.  The Creator must have allowed for creatures to keep improving toward specific goals. Predators like the cheetah having to run faster and faster to catch its prey; but the gazelle and impalas did not take it sitting down either.  Generation after generation predators ran faster but almost to the same degree of development, prey were running faster too. It had always been an arms race, so to speak, between predators and prey.

So, at the risk of offending many, which does not exclude the highly esteemed scientists and researchers whose business it is to know these things, and since I cannot claim knowledge at their level, not even close, and admitting further that the next sentences I say here are totally unencumbered by any kind of scientific bases or even by simple logical deduction, I will say them anyway.  But to hedge a little bit I will state them in the form of a question.

Is it possible that viruses actually helped species, all life forms, to keep improving themselves by causing all the necessary adaptations and mutations so that generation after generation the newest version always comes out better than the previous one.  You see, the world had seen several pandemics already - the Bubonic plague, the flu of 1917-18, etc. - but at each time the virulence did not achieve perfect annihilation of human life. Much of the population actually survived, far more than those who succumb. Not only that but life expectancy improved tremendously.  When rabies or distemper comes around the animal kingdom, those that survived are far stronger than the previous ones in the face of the next epidemic.

In a way I am advancing a positive spin to this most current calamity and because I do not have the proper credentials, I present this as an eternal optimist would see the glass as half filled, rather than one that is half empty.

I mentioned the mosquito. There is hope, even how slight, that the cure for malaria - Hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine - is a potential drug against Covid 19.  Perhaps too, we should avoid the handshake forever.  After all, the handshake has a dubious origin, if we believe some of the explanations.  It was, we're told, practiced between warriors about to make peace by exposing their arms to be empty of a weapon and each holding one another's dominant hand (that is why handshakes are always done using right hands, left handers in the minority not withstanding) as a sign of goodwill.  Coughing or sneezing into the crook of our bent elbows and washing our hands the proper 20-second way are the other positives we get.  And what prompted us to do this? Covid19!

Obviously, the world will get through this.  What is also apparent is that this is not going to be the last one.  But then, are we not now better prepared for it?  Did we not put an end to polio and small pox?  Those were caused by viruses we vanquished.

Isn't the virus no more an agent of creation than each living life form? Lemonade from a lemon, yes, that is right. But what else are we to do.  The virus had been here long before the first glimmer of life.  It will be here for as long as we are here to ponder and worry about it and perhaps for millennia after we are all gone.  Remember, we are still at the top of creation but God is not making it easy and there must be a reason for it.

Soon, we will also go back to the time when entering a bank wearing a mask will be a felony again.  





  

Brief Moments at the Airport in Time of COVID-19

Someday, many tomorrows from now, or even after a thousand days hence, we hope to look back at Corona virus (COVID 19) from the rear view mirror of history - a receding winding road to humanity's triumph over an infectious strain and stress on the collective psyche brought on by fear, real or imagined. 

Meanwhile, should we not see and focus on what silver linings we can glean from the gathering dark clouds that are soon to be parted as they always did when people interact more than ever before, perhaps in even more unexpected ways toward a unity of purpose?

Airports, especially if one is traveling alone, are the near ideal places for encountering strangers. But never inter-acting with any, nor they among one another. As always, encounters are brief and hurried as travelers go about their activities with blinders and   ant-like precision to find that TSA line as if following a pheromone-laden path, then on to finding the right gate, sit down and wait until boarding time. At that moment everyone slumps to decompress to relieve the stress. Then only to ponder having to go through it once again at their destination. In reverse order - as in locating the right baggage carousel,  picking up the checked-in luggage among many others that miraculously re-appear single file, like cut pieces of python, from underneath a red blinking light and black flapping fingers of rubber, snaking their way to their waiting owners to the cadence of a monotonous blare from a throaty horn familiar to factory workers during a shift change. Then you must find your ride or  parking lot, or with luck meet up quickly with someone waiting to pick you up.  That about sums it all up for the air travel experience.

Traveling alone is therefore akin to the elusive neutrino - that speeding, sub-atomic particle that 99.99999 percent of the time never interacts with any other particle, going through slabs of concrete or walls of steel or an entire planet even and not affecting or be affected by any other substance.  Airports though are where irony of all ironies prevail - the busier an airport is, with more passengers going through to and fro, the less likely that strangers will ever interact with one another.   The thicker the crowd the less likely one passenger interacts with another.  Passengers become neutrino-like. The stress is too much to make conversation, let alone with a stranger of unpredictable demeanor.

Then the corona virus (COVID19) struck with the suddenness of an undetected asteroid. That changed everything.  

I was traveling by myself a few days ago from Boston.  The virus held back a lot of would-be travelers, either postponing indefinitely or canceling their travel altogether. There was no line at TSA screening although that did not eliminate the serpentine path from "Enter Here" to the venerable podium lorded over by a uniformed gate keeper whose nod or hand motion, like a magic wand, declares each passenger eligible for passage.  Then and only then when one is able to proceed and use the rolled conveyor for his or her inanimate travel companion - hand bags, laptops, carry-on-luggage, jackets, etc. - followed immediately by the privilege to be scanned by an unfeeling detector that is likely to squeal at the slightest indication of non-compliance.

Strangely, TSA personnel were much too kind, smiling even, unstressed by the lightened workload. Alternatively, the image was that of when a  "slowdown in business" brought on the best in storekeepers' attitude and demeanor to win over passing customers. This is all in jest, I hasten to add, in case "someone" is reading this.

Travelers were noticeably lighthearted even though they were two to three hours way too  early for their flight, after breezing through luggage check-in, followed by a leisurely stroll, sauntering towards the TSA cordon with an invisible line of people.  For the first time there seemed to be more uniformed personnel than there were travelers. The scene could easily have been a subplot for the "Twilight Zone" - the movie.  Clearly an exaggeration on my part but, hey, my imagination was playing tricks on my conditioned mind.

Eye contacts between travelers almost always guaranteed a smile. Smiles of elation, enthusiastic ones, even smiles framed by one unmistakable, "Can you believe this?"  expression.  Sitting areas fronting the near empty food court were plentiful, charging stations and electrical outlets with USB receptacles along rows of couches and tall tables were much too eerily vacant, except for a handful of disbelieving souls.  Dunkin Donuts had just two customers ahead of me.  Got my bottled water in under three minutes from the "What would you like?' to me getting my change and receipt. I took one of those tall tables that had six empty high chairs around it. 

Not long after, a couple took the other end.  They just knew we will be on the same plane even though we were not anywhere near the designated gate yet.  I had on a Texas Longhorn sweat shirt. They guessed correctly. Conversation was spontaneously quick and by the twentieth minute I knew they were retired and were visiting her son who recently moved to work for a very large oil corporation in Houston. Notice, "her son"? They were a mixed family, each one has children from each other's prior marriages.  Her other son is in the Army, currently at Fort Bragg.  The husband was a retired teacher who taught children with learning disabilities, some with behavioral problems. His ex-wife had problems with alcohol; that piece of information volunteered freely by his now current wife. He nonchalantly mentioned too that he has a 26 year old college graduate who walks dogs for a living. Why  was she a dog walker?  She can't find work with her  degree in environmental science. He proudly showed me his copy of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" when he saw the book in front of me - Fulvio Melia's "The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy". He joked that there had to be some kind of cosmic meaning to the near coincidence. She was a retired nurse in a cancer hospital. She talked about her 84 year mother who ably lives by herself except for a once weekly visit from a part time caregiver. Of course, she looks in on her regularly herself. And there were more other trivia I learned about New Hampshire - their home state. They bade leave shortly to check out the gift shops.  There was even more time when she told me she just got a text notification from the airline that our flight was pushed back from the scheduled 12:40 takeoff to 1:10 p.m. 

Why do people - complete strangers - in a mere moment's notice tell me their life story?  It's a "gift". I'm serious.

My wife always tells me that.  Initially, she just wondered at first when complete strangers we meet for the first time would just tell me (unmistakably directly to me) their life stories, almost with abandon.  Now she just marvels at the "gift". I can't explain it myself but I have to admit I have that effect on people.  In the mid-eighties, we had a late middle aged secretary who moved to Houston when the entire company relocated from New York.   In no time this secretary whose seniority extended over and beyond the other secretaries (she was the big boss's gatekeeper and you better know it) talked to me often.  I was here barely long enough to apply for U.S. citizenship, so my spoken English was far from polished, roughened by a distinct Filipino accent, while she had the sharply direct Bronx or Queens, NY manner of speaking.  Then the truth came out. It was cheaper for her to talk to me than to her psychotherapist. She "unburdened" for free by talking to me. Back then, secretaries served coffee or tea to their bosses on top of their regular typing duties and administrative functions. Well, on several occasions, something she never did but for the big boss, she from time to time brought coffee or tea to a very junior supply analyst and third world immigrant - me. 

It's of course not really a "gift".  I merely listen. And when called for I respond in a manner that connects with whatever the stranger wants to talk about, identifying the right "cue" as people talk, without arguing or judging. There is nothing to it, really. I think. I've always believed that conversations are like a currency transaction. It succeeds when both parties trade with the same currency regardless of denomination and if it means breaking down a large bill in exchange for some smaller ones or even change for a dollar or a peso, then both should enter into a transaction worthy of each other's time, however long or short it is.

Hardly two minutes back into my book when another couple took the next low round table with couches around it.  The man was looking for a USB receptacle that worked. None seemed to at the round table. Sensing his frustration I pointed the one across from me on the same tall table I was at. It worked. Noticing his wife also unwinding the familiar USB umbilical cord of her own phone, I asked her to use the other USB receptacle and she complied, lugging her heavy carry-on luggage with her.  Before I could finish the question, "Where y'all heading?", she declared they had "one way tickets to Vegas". She said it almost as a preamble to, "Go ahead, ask me why".

Now, if that was not begging me or anyone hearing it and not think, "There's got to be  story there", then nothing ever will.  But here is where preconception is quickly dashed to smithereens because what followed was one of the most pleasant, funny conversations one can ever wish for between complete strangers at the airport.  Forget the book, time elapsed more quickly in an hour which felt like ten minutes.

Sofia and Marco (not writing their real names here) were leaving Massachusetts for good.  They sold their pizzeria that had been a family business since the fifties.  She in fact worked there along with her mother who took over when Sofia's grand parents passed away.  Marco, unlike Sofia who was born here, came as a scrawny 16-year old immigrant from Naples. Their paths crossed when one day at the pizzeria's kitchen Sofia's mother was giving instructions to Marco, who started working there at night and on weekends while going to school on weekdays.  Sofia's mother was strict, specially with her, but apparently Marco won her over before Sofia had anything to say about it.  But it was meant to be.  They continued the business after Sofia's mom passed on. They have a son and a daughter.

Why move to Las Vegas?  But first, Sofia opened her phone's photo album.  There was their Massachusetts' large front yard blanketed by thick snow and a huge bare tree in the middle.  Next, she showed me the Vegas home they purchased not too long ago.  It is Nevada, so the yard is all sand with one olive tree in the middle but their backyard had a brand new swimming pool with all the accessories of lounge chairs and a barbecue pit and water slide next to a cute diving board.  She didn't stop there. There was a large living room but apparently she was proud of her brand new kitchen and laundry room with the latest washer/dryer combo.  I sensed immediately that far from bragging, she wanted to point out to me that her new home cost less than a fourth of her over 100-year old home in Massachusetts and the property taxes were just as enticing as the Las Vegas strand. She apparently took pictures with her phone of old black and white photos of the old pizzeria started by her grand parents and various shots of family members from three generations.

Las Vegas is mid-way between Utah (where their son and his family live) and California where their daughter has decided to stay after going to school there.  Now we know, "Why Las Vegas".  The son was actually going to meet them at the Las Vegas airport.

Of her other photos she shared, she was proud to show her and Marco partying with the whole cast of the then very popular TV series (1999-2007), "The Sopranos".  There she was with James Gandolfini's arm over her shoulder and another group photo  with her and Marco bracketing Gandolfini sitting on a large leather sofa.

At some point Sofia wanted to buy me coffee, cake, whatever I liked from the Dunkin Donuts shop that was by then empty of customers.  She begged to get me something but water was all I wanted.  Marco started talking about their son who married a Chinese lady he met in college.  The wedding was in Jakarta, Indonesia where their then soon-to-be-daughter-in-law was one of eleven children.  Her father was the patriarch of a huge and influential Chinese family in Jakarta with all kinds of business holdings.  Then Sofia interjected with her phone's photo album once more.  Their two grand children - a mix of Italian and Chinese bloodline - are now in their teens.  The thirteen year old grand daughter had the stunning features of Italian/Chinese beautifully melded together. Marco claimed that Michelangelo, had the  Renaissance artist been living today, could not have imagined someone more beautiful.  Indeed, the photo of the young girl supported his sentiments, albeit that of a grandfather.  He had more to tell about their trip for the wedding to that part of the world they knew nothing about, especially about being met at the Jakarta airport by the bride's family in a stretched limo - something they thought was a scene only New York or Boston or LA could provide for a backdrop.  Clearly not in that 11,000 island archipelago on the opposite side of the world.

The topics meandered from Caruso and Mario Lanza to the other TV series, "Everybody Loves Raymond", then on to Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, but we didn't talk about "The Godfather", politics and religion.  The latter two are the currencies never to be exchanged among strangers.

Moments later after an hour had elapsed, the retired nurse from the other couple I met earlier came back around to tell me she got another text message from the airline that our flight was reset back to the original schedule.  She thought I'd like to know that and I thanked her before she headed back to the gate.

Nothing got past Marco. He asked me who that  was. I explained, to which he said in his heavily accented mix of Boston/Italian English, "She walked all the way back from Gate 34 to tell you that?" He elbowed Sofia and said, "What a guy, huh?" 

We said our goodbyes.  I told them how I enjoyed our conversation so much and likewise for them, they said.  Marco handed me a couple of packets of hand sanitizer.  Which brought us all back to the pressing reality of the moment, but we all laughed and we parted.

By the time I got to our gate the airline announced that the flight was reset once more 
to the 1:10 departure.  So, the airline ground personnel were going to have a paper airplane flying contest.  Promptly, one lady personnel started distributing what she announced as top quality paper (they were 8-1/2 by 11 bond paper) to anyone willing to participate. I declined because I figured there were too many entrants already - all wannabe aeronautical engineers - and I cannot bear losing.  There were three prizes - tiered First, Second, and Third based on flight distances - for $150, $100, $50 travel vouchers, respectively.  That got a lot of people excited with contestants lined up on one side and spectators on another.  Judging from the 'ohs' and 'ahs' it was as if people were watching the Wright brothers launched the first airplane at Kitty Hawk 117 years ago.

Such were some of the brief moments at the airport during the time of COVID 19.

It shall pass.  

But not until the hysteria and paranoia subsides when folks begin to settle down and when paper products and canned goods begin to re-appear back on the store shelves.

Meanwhile, we can only hope that reason and normal modes of behavior return promptly. I'll be making the trip back to Boston and back to Texas again in several days so I am wishing for the best.

You Do the Math

When anything pertains to numbers "You do the math" is obviously the arbiter to settling an argument or for proving a point. Or, for confirming a theorem, or to support a hypothesis.  It had always worked that way, hasn't it?

However, when Brian Williams, a lead MSNBC news anchor, made such an attempt at doing the math, not only did it not add up, incredulity had to be redefined along with giving him the utmost benefit of the doubt; his Hurricane Katrina fiasco notwithstanding.  Below is a quote of what he said on national TV.

“When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear,” said Williams. “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. Don’t tell us if you’re ahead of us on the math. He could have given each American $1 million and have lunch money left over. It’s an incredible way of putting it.”

It was obvious his "doing the math" was not even close to a facsimile of elementary arithmetic or a simple exercise in common sense.  But he was right about one thing, by his own account, "It’s an incredible way of putting it.”

When a certain presidential candidate uses a number, such as "150 million people have been killed [by guns] since 2007.", we know it was a gaffe; otherwise, it was one where math was left undone just to make a hasty point while sounding knowledgeable.  Or, so he thought.

To paraphrase Henry Higgins from "My Fair Lady", let me say this, "There even are places where math has completely disappeared; in politics, politicians have never used it for years".

America is an unlikely place for math to lose its roots from the winds of change but it is clearly hanging by a thin filament hardly noted except by those  whose business it is to be concerned with academic erosion of some sort.

The program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, revealed that among the 35 industrialized nations that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. now ranks 31st. (That was in 2015). In 2018, the prognosis has gotten worse. The U.S. is no. 38 and "it is getting worse".

“We really are doing a lot worse in math than we are in science and reading,” said Peggy Carr, the acting commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics, who had early access to the PISA results.

What are we to make of this nation's elementary education? What are we to expect of our ability to compete in a world where the landscape for economic competition is constantly changing with technology as the main driver. And we know math is the language of technology.

Here is what is happening.  The country still has the best learning environment for science and technology and an industry and an economy to support it. Tech schools, such as MIT and Caltech, just to name a couple, are magnets to the worldwide population of talented undergrads who come here for their advanced education.  For decades a majority of them stayed to pursue careers along with the best economic advantage American corporations have to offer. In other words, they provided the necessary intellectual transfusion to keep technology development to continue and flourish here..

Unfortunately, that phenomenon may also have obscured the view of the decline of math proficiency in 1 to 10th grade education here. Educators, or significantly those tasked to make a top-view assessment of education in general, did not see that coming until those foreboding stats on math proficiency came to light.

Now for an even dire view of what is happening. Today, the foreign undergrads after their masters or PHDs are going back to their homeland because those countries are now able to provide the same level of incentives for these young talent to go back home and practice their craft and entrepreneurship for their countries.  

Add to that the loss of intellectual property through nefarious means, sometimes facilitated by the same talents educated here or by foreign governments from where those students came from, and the wake up call is non-too-soon, if not much too late. I am not making a derogatory accusation here but by simply taking cue from how seriously the U.S. is assessing the theft of technology and intellectual property, with losses already in the billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is left with an alarming number of its high school graduates unable to perform at the same level that graduates from developing countries are able to do.  The export of industries and jobs to foreign soil was not whimsically contrived by American corporations who moved chunks of their factories and business supports there (accounting, help desks and anything that can be done online) but by plain acknowledgment of the level of expertise, know how, and dedication by the local workers in the host countries at lower pay scales.

The U.S. is trying to reverse that trend now, hopefully not too late to the level of futility, but there are a few critical changes that need to be made.

Math.  This country needs to do the math.  Literally and figuratively. Math literacy could never have been so crucial.  While most American students are too often not learning the metric system but complain when admonished to do so, their foreign counterparts are adept at both the English and metric systems and the cross-over equivalency with ease and flair of bi-linguality.  When computer language is written in zeros and ones what better system is more adept at adapting than the metric system where the placement of zeros is all that is needed at up-scaling or down-scaling values.  Surely, if American students are expected to know  feet from inches and the fractions thereof (1/8, 1/4, 3/32, 7/64) and feet to miles and acres and multiples or fractions of it, millimeter and centimeter and meters and kilometers are a cinch to master when all that is needed is move zeros either at before or after the decimal points.

Math. That should be the singular word to turn things around. It is also the one great way to reform undergraduate studies, specially where liberal arts education is dominated by a teaching faculty who make it their business to transform this nation's culture and moral landscape that should have remained free from way too much fiddling and re-adjusting. That is where math, as a metaphor or code, excels at maintaining order and consistency.  Not, for example, by multiplying gender identities or subtracting and adding or re-classifying moral codes and behavior.

It is time we do the math.