TWO MEN WHO MADE THE WORLD BETTER. CAN YOU NAME THEM?

The person on the left is 1921 Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, perhaps the world's most renown physicist, meeting Charlie Chaplin, the world's greatest silent movie comic artist. 

These two men changed the world for the better in their own manor and style. 

It was said that Charlie Chaplin was the only person in Hollywood that Einstein wanted to meet. In 1931 at the premier of Chaplin's new film, CityLights (trailer here), the two geniuses met for the first time.

It was the Nobel Prize committee that shared this exchange in their conversation:

Einstein: "What I most admire about your art is your universality. You don't say a word yet the world understands you."

Chaplin: "True, but your glory is even greater! The whole world admires you, even though they don't understand a word of what you say." 

It's simple. Science and comedy do actually make our incredible world go 'round. The science to better understand the improbabilities of life and the comedy to better deal with it all.

A lesson of life as we know it:

Today, in the cutest voice, my young daughter asked me to start recycling. I smiled and asked, "Why?"

"So you can help me save the planet," she told me.

And why do you want to save the planet?

"Because," she explained "that's where I keep all my stuff."

Thanks to Marc and Angel Hack Life website

ARE YOU LISTENING PEOPLE OF EARTH?

You are what you read... or are you? Your favorite reads? And mine.

It seems odd to start with a book I DID NOT LIKE, Klara and the Sun. It was authored by Kazou Ishiguro, winner of a 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. He also wrote Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. I have read neither but both are soon to be movies. So what have I missed?

       

I'm either not smart enough or just like to be more entertained, and that's harder if there is no popcorn.

I loved this book, Why Fish Don't Exist by former NPR Radio Lab personality Lulu Miller who writes so incredibly well. It is a non-fiction story with incredible art that made it a great read for me. 

Aptly described by Sy Montgomery who wrote NYTimes best seller, The Soul of an Octopus, (another great read): "Riveting. Surprising. Shocking, even! Why Fish Don't Exist begins with a mesmerizing account of the life of distinguished biologist David Starr Jordan--and then, quite unexpectedly, turns into so much more. Narrated in Lulu Miller's intimate, quirky voice, this is a story of science and struggle, of heartbreak and chaos. This book will capture your head, seize your imagination, smash your preconceptions, and rock your world."

Now it must be known that I like to read both fiction and non fiction, and I often have several books going at any one time. And some of my reads are wide-ranging for reasons I can't explain. But it is nice to try to suck everything in.

I've got my eye on the new Steven King book, Billy Summers. It was King who gave me my most favorite, The Stand, in 1978 and almost all of his early books until I tired of the supernatural twist. But he is good and I am ready once again. 

The first book I recall that totally blew my 3rd or 4th grade mind was Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I could hardly wait to see what happens next and had, for the first time, that bittersweet experience of closing the book when done. I wanted more!

I'm also looking forward to A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: the Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and some bears) by first-time author Mathew Hongolitz-Hetling, a strange but true story of one New Hampshire town that became the nexus of a collision between bears, libertarians, guns, donuts, parasites, firecrackers, taxes and one angry llama. Is that not an intriguing run of words? We'll see.

Raise your hand if you have read any or all of Malcolm Gladwell's books. He is a Canadian writer, lecturer and thought-provoker who's first five books--THE TIPPING POINT: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, BLINK: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, OUTLIERS: The Story of Success,  WHAT THE DOG SAW: And Other Adventures and DAVID And GOLIATH: Underdogs, Misfits and The Art of Battling Giants--made the NYTimes best seller list. His work has often appeared in The New Yorker.

His 'take' on so many of the things we imagine differently in our minds is often an 'eye-opener.' For example, did you know that Goliath was actually the big underdog to David? Very logically, yes. 

Gladwell is, for me, a good read.

Ok, so who is on my nightstand now? The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni, Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley, Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, A Promised Land by Barack Obama, Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins and Draft No. 4 by John McPhee. More coming and going. That's how to read.

Books are incredible for the places they take us. So what are your reading choices of note? And what is your next book to be? Share at pjsjerry@gmail.com Love to hear.

NAME YOUR POISON: A Serious Reflection of here and now.

Yes, from The Princess Bride

If  you don't think this applies to you, it     does.

 

  

We--by action, inaction, consent, default,         ignorance and other ways--are killing ourselves.

It's a strange, beautiful, wonderful world we live in, filled with so many good creatures and wonderful ideas. But we, God's receivers of all these gifts, are literally poisoning ourselves in so many different big and small ways.

We don't have to be bad to do bad, and most of us aren't.  We can be innocent bystanders. But even bystanders have obligations. Sometimes our actions are biased, prejudiced, naive, unconcerned, unbelieving short-sighted and more. And yes, more often than not, we are bad actors.

But in our own way, we are the killers.

Global warming... *or not: Does it matter what you call it? In Death Valley, California it was 135 degrees for three days in a row. That is verified, the hottest temperature in the recorded history of our world. I can cook a roast in my crock pot at that temperature. 

Our last decade was the warmest ever. Our warmest six years have all been since 2015 with 2016. 2019 and 2020 being the top three. June, 2021-- just one month ago-- was the warmest month ever. Go figure.

The drought, the lightning and the fires: What should we call this ugly phenomena? New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd suggested "The Day After Tomorrow was Yesterday" would be an apt title. Seattle was 108 degrees, British Columbia unbelievably hit 121. The world is experiencing 'once in a lifetime' rains, flooding and drought as weather patterns have changed. Forest fires world-wide are more ravaging than ever in places that have never seen this before. Smoke from our fires in the West have darkened New York and East Coast skies. The dire climate fears scientists have warned are coming in 10 or 20 years are already here. 

And this is just a foretelling. What will next year be like... and the following? 

Destruction of natures' balancing act: Oil companies making billions of dollars mining the Niger Delta region in Nigeria are leaving ruin and devastation for the natives in what once was once one of the most incredible ecosystems in the world. The Amazon rain forest in Brazil is combating continuing major loss by man's hand of this treasure that was a key weapon in combating greenhouse gas emissions. These things are happening world-wide as never before.

Greta Thunberg

Some deniers have delighted in the mocking of Nobel Special Award recipient Greta Thunberg as she continues to raise the cry. 

There is discord and the lack of common good: The United States and much of the rest of the world has no common ground on which to build. You would think survival and critical times would be a universal enemy, but we, as a people, seem not to believe even that. 

The pandemic... and the ones to follow: We, in a general sense, seem to hate each other, just because. With the every day problems we face even before we tackle the greater problems of mankind in general, we can't seem to get to first base. We can't decide to wear a mask or not, get vaccinated, or disbelieve on principal or suspicion, or, as I said, just because.

We are a gun totin' country: In the United States, 316 people are shot by a gun every day. And of them, 106 die. There have been 147 mass shootings--defined as four or more shot or killed, excluding the shooter-- in America already this year and we still have five more months to go. We are awash in illegal 'ghost guns' (firearms without ID markings, easily hand made or otherwise) popular by those who use them in every illegal way. And, if any legal gun is purchased, half of the buyers are not 'background checked.' We still legally sell weapons that can easily be converted to fire 20 or more rounds in seconds. 

We do not have an issue with those who own and use legal guns acquired legally. But make no mistake, we do have an issue.

Then we have water to contend with... and water has no master: Because of global warming, an enormous chunk of ice has this spring broken off the Antarctic ice shelf. The floating mass covers more than 1,600 square miles making it the largest iceberg in the world... so far. For comparison, that is just a little shy in size of the state of California which is 1,637 square miles. Already water is encroaching on the world's shores and experts' projections warn this is just the beginning. Even inland Chicago is at a point of no return with water control problems as man is no master of nature. This incredible video tells that amazing story. Mother Nature isn't done with us... not by a long shot.

The Golden Rule is now defined as "He who has the gold, rules." And money talks... but not for everyone,  It originally read "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Remember?

So which poison is it that proves a tipping point? 

The ray of hope is that we become more aware every day of the things we can do and while an unsatisfactory course is already upon us, know the worse can be altered. We are taking some positive action and making progress, but the tide against us is fast-moving and relentless. And not everyone is of the same belief and/or as willing to make the effort and sacrifices required to alter a perilous way forward.

I hope and pray we strongly advocate for the better, lead when we can, be vocal to those who need to know how we feel, elect those who believe, and work with the empowered to take this challenge seriously. Time's a'wastin'.

The universal question should be, "What will we leave our children?"

*Note of caution to those who do not believe in global warming: Be careful if you are near the edge of the earth so you don't fall off.