Memorial Day--What do you remember?

Well, you show me yours, then I’ll (right!--not quite what I had in mind, though.) How about you tell me your story, then I’ll tell you mine? Well, since it's me sitting on my couch with my laptop in action, guess I should reverse that. I’LL tell you MINE first: THEN you can take it! (Of course you saw that from the get-go, didn’t you!)

Mine goes something like this: Back in 1966, +/-, I found myself in that far-off oriental land that many did everything under the sun to avoid. But I? Oh, no--finding myself in the last stages of a great US government sponsored trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and having the opportunity to influence the selection process just a little bit (rrrright,) I dropped by our orderly room and picked up my “forecast” form. Thinking I might get somewhat of a bit more “favorable” treatment by going with the flow, I selected Southeast Asia as my personal preference. (We did have bases in Thailand, right? And, anyway, why fight the inevitable?)

Well--maybe my strategy went just a little bit right--maybe, if you consider the number of places I could have gone and still been in a “war zone.” Like my friend Kenny Lail who found himself somewhere--Vung Tao, maybe? Or another friend, Mike Allsbrook who was somewhere up North (North South Vietnam, that is,) Where, exactly, I really don’t know--China Beach, maybe? No, my assignment was definitely a bit easier to swallow--would you believe Saigon? Well, that was it!

And what do I want to discuss on Memorial day? Was it those Vietnamese women who took care of our Hoochs (what we called our barracks buildings) making up our beds, cleaning up after an evening of drinking by their airmen, bringing in local delights for their charges to dine on from time to time? Well, no, not exactly that. How about that 12 hour a day workday (Monday through Sunday at that?) Well, no, not exactly that, either. Or, how about that really great airman’s club? All things considered, “no way” fits the bill just fine.

What is on my mind, this Memorial day, is, for the most part, two things that brought the rest of the country into our idyllic existence. First were the helicopters. Now helicopters that were in Vietnam were really somewhat ubiquitous. Day and night we would hear them bring whatever to our little air base by the runway of our combined Airport--with us on one side, and the civilian Airport on the other. Sometime we would even see them arriving carrying relatively large bags beneath them. Interestingly, usually these bag trips coincided with times when the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) were engaged in their operations in support of their South Vietnamese allies, the Viet Cong.

The second thing I would like to mention about my time in Saigon were the flat bed trucks. Seems we would often see flat bed trucks cruising the streets of our base carrying little aluminum parcels lined up from front to back, all loaded cross-ways on the flat beds--sort of a dozen or so to the trip (no, not really a dozen--eight maybe.) The two phenomena were related, you see, since the contents of the bags and the contents of those aluminum parcels were the same material, material that was in transit from the killing fields of the country to communities all over the Untied States. That material was mainly men, and an occasional woman, who gave their all to the politics of containment being foisted on all our military personnel by politicians sitting in air conditioned offices in Washington, DC, in our good ole’ USA.

And the bags? The easiest “shipping” containers one could find to carry the bodies from the battlefield to the morgue.  And the aluminum containers? Coffins for the gallant being taken from our central morgue to aircraft for transport to the states. Couldn’t do much about those bags, but many of us would stop and salute as the flat beds rolled by.

A pretty great duty station, wouldn’t you say?

Ahhh, Memorial Day. (Now you?)

Thoughts on the amoeba

Thoughts on the amoeba

The amoeba is a primal creature, one of the smaller of creatures that we might be ultimately related to. It propagates by simple division, one creating two creatures during its propagation process. And, unless there is a problem with the division, creating a different individual during the process, both creatures will be identical. One becomes two--two become four--four become eight, etc., etc., etc!

Thus, unless problems that would tend to make new creatures out of the amoeba’s division process occur, the amoeba we might see in our microscope in microbiology class is the identical creature that began its existance eons and eons ago--making it one of the oldest creatures on this planet. And, it is those problems they might experience that could have made them the initiator of larger creatures, say two celled creatures, or four celled ones, or multicelled organisms like we ourselves. Something to consider.

So what, you say? Well, just this: Unlike the amoeba, we multicelled creatures, beginning at the point of our inception, are burdened with one issue that is not a problem for the amoeba--that issue is death. We have our begin points and our end points, like it or not. Where am I going with this? What started me off on this path, that is.

Well, just a few short 24 hours ago, I learned of my Uncle’s death--something I had not realized was something to think about, much less, something that was about to happen any time soon. My uncle Stu, my mother’s brother, who, due to someone’s typo in some form of correspondence, I lovingly called “Unkle,” passed on to his eternal existance, eternal, that is, until the resurrection promised to all believers. And, due to the lack of communication on the subject, I was caught totally unprepared. Still, I was able to make the trip to New Albany to provide whatever comfort my presence might have given to the family. Of course, I do not know how much longer my presence might be available--a fact of existence that all of us must remember and accept (what else can any of us do?)

Amy, Mark, and John, Stu’s children (quite adult, mind you) and various other family members were there. We all came together in sad remembrance. Connie, Stu’s wife, Mother of my cousins (“Auntie,” to me) was there too, of course, taking on the job she had prepared herself to do to the best of her abilities. Connie, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s several years ago, made herself remarkably, sadly, available to all in her grief. Unlike the amoeba, we must go on believing what seems to be our end is not, in effect, an endpoint, just a beginning of an intermission for us between that conception and that resurrection. Praise be to God! We, too, have the same hope eternal that our amoebic friends must possess. What else is there to say? For me there is that hope eternal that must be remembered and passed on to all who will listen. How we do this is something each of us must decide. You are reading what my decision process brought me to--the written word will last a bit longer than this old body, that much I may assure you.

So read on, my friend, but, better than that, why not try my solution to our dilemma. Start putting down your thoughts on your own existence--your personal past and your hopes for the future. Read over my thoughts in the accompanying pamphlet, “Autobiographical Trust” and begin at the beginning to write down your thoughts on the proposed questions and the questions that come to you as you work your way through the proposed exercises. No hurry here. What is needed is a commitment to do the work up to the point of the present and to return to the work periodically until you feel you are ready to proceed to the job of writing your own personal biography. Do this, and one commitment to your ancestors will be met.  

Any questions? (Sure, probably quite a few. BUT, don’t let this stop you. Your answers will come with the doing.)

Good luck. And, on behalf or our progeny, and theirs, and theirs, and, ..., well, I’m sure you get the point, let me say “thank you--thank you very much!”

Amoeba we aren’t. Eternal, though, we just might be.

SVG

5/25/2019

And now,it’s your turn: All you need are a pen and paper, or a computer and printer. Be sure to document your work, and make it as permanent as possible on paper and/or (“and” is best) on high quality thumb drives--16 gig will probably do fine--two at a minimum--one working copy and a second as a backup (very necessary.) And, of course, the pamphlet:

https://www.amazon.com/Autobiographical-Trust-personal-Everything-autobiography-ebook/dp/B01LA5IZUU/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Stephen+V+Geddes&qid=1558721707&s=digital-text&sr=1-2-catcorr

And again, let me again say “thank you--thank you very much!”

Numeral "deux"

Blogging away, hey, hey, hey!

Got here today by way of an "author" page at Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07F64V892 ) and was there to update IT!  Well, it wanted me to include a blog (if I used one,) and on trying to point out my initial "Morningbrain...," it just didn't work.  Will try to use this entry and see if that works.  In any case, the book and pamphlet on Amazon are on the verge of being published, both as Kindle editions and paperback, and I guess, having that done, I will be coming here a bit more frequently.

No new topic to discuss today except for the Aiken Carolina Bay.  It seems, sometime over the course of the last few years, this bay has become polluted.  There is an indicator organism, "duckweed" it is called, that is almost covering the bay.  This was not the case way back when, when I began writing articles for that now defunct internet news source called "Examiner.com."  One of my earlier articles was about that very Bay which, at that time, supported a bit of duckweed.  All natural bodies of water in our area probably have just a bit of the stuff, but nowhere near what is an almost a total cover of the water's surface by the little plant.  I think I'll pass this on to our "AikenStandard" and see what they have to say.  Pollution is not a good thing, especially when it is something that is degrading a City asset like Aiken's Carolina Bay.  Could be our City might borrow about three autosamplers from the County to find out which feed stream of the bay is delivering the pollutant to the bay.  Once that is done, it shouldn't be too difficult to find out who the culprit is and make the needed corrections.

That's about it, for now (except for that first blog.  To go there, try:  https://stephenvgeddes.blogspot.com/2011/09/morningbrain-first-august-2009.html .)

And, of course, thanks for your interest.

SVG