The Second Step

                                                        The Second Step 


   Where were you when Neil Armstrong took that first step? He was on the Moon - that's 

for sure. It was July 20, 1969 - well sort of. In Florida it was 10:56 pm EDT. 

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  And now here we are.

Thanksgiving on the Mars Colony

                                           Thanksgiving on the Mars Colony

     Imagine trying to put together a Thanksgiving Dinner on Mars! No pumpkins. No turkeys. 

No Atmosphere! Sure, they could drop a hundred complete Thanksgiving Dinners in time for

the holiday. You could televise the whole thing and make the Earth people laugh and 

wonder. They were paying the bills. Why shouldn't they get a smile out of our efforts. Still, 

it wasn't really Thanksgiving. No pilgrims. No Indians. No snow except at the poles and that 

was carbon dioxide. No atmosphere. Marsha could feel a tear starting to fall. Why'd she sign

on to a crazy tour like this. "Twelve years of pioneering through the heavens".She 

remembered the poster. The stars and the sun and the little red planet. Then she thought of 

the pioneers that landed at Plymouth Colony and were lucky enough to have food to eat and

a shelter against the coming winter. "They had just about the same level of difficulty ahead  

of them as we do here and now". And she cried for them and wondered what kind of 

"Indians" might happen into their camp... 

The Black Knights vs The Mummy

                                           


                                                      The Black Knights vs The Mummy

...Maybe, just maybe, this story - which is totally true - just amuses me - now that it's 
over. But, it's being written for you. Don't play with matches - Don't make fun of the things that go "boooo" in the night. You know what I mean, because - they will get you as sure as 
it snows in winter and rains in April.

                                 

   ...We had weekly meetings of the Black Knights club every Friday evening. Each week was at someone else's house. I won't tell you the name of the kid whose house it was this particular week, because we'd all be arrested - that's for sure - but his initials were J. L. and we were all about ten years old - maybe eleven. 

  We were finishing off our snacks of pretzels and cokes. This was usually the high point of our meetings, when someone asked J. L. what they had down in the basement. That's when he warned us; "There's a mummy down there - you don't want to go down there". Now, you have to realize that, even then, people didn't mention things like this - not over cokes and pretzels - maybe sometimes out camping at night telling ghost stories or something - but not in a real house where you were having your weekly club meeting. So it went over with a sort of questioning curiosity mixed with a little bit of challenge against who knew what was actually down there - if anything. "What, someone asked, is he alive?" I don't remember the actual conversation but it went something like that. "He's a mummy!", came the reply. Again, that's the darned best I can remember this. Remembering anything at all after the mummy has to be a great accomplishment, you understand. 

   Now look, it wasn't for nothing that we were called the Black Knights. We were a force to be dealt with whether on our bikes or on foot, especially on Halloween at night when we rang doorbells and engaged in all kinds of mischief - better left unsaid. 
...I forget who, but one of us decided to laugh off the whole idea of a Mummy in the basement and show the world just who the Black Knights were. He was the first in line down the steps and I was a few guys behind. We went down slowly. Each step was like a "no way back" descent into the depths of the lair of the evil one himself. I'm not kidding you.You could feel the damp fear closing in on you, cold and mean, like a hungry werewolf, or something so horrible, no one has ever imagined it. At the first step down, there was fear, real fear, and the second step was total abject terror. It wasn't a question of smelling it or hearing it - you knew it was there and was going to eat you - at least this. 

...It's not clear yet, who bolted first, but it was sheer stampede back up the steps. "I told you", J. L. said matter of factly...
   That was the last meeting of the Black Knights...


            

Technology Today

                                 Technology Today

    Let’s face it. The pace of technology on this Earth has rocketed skyward – literally – in this last century. It’s

overpowering to consider the changes we’ve witnessed. From the horse and wagon, through the age of steam locomotion and  internal combustion engines, and to actually walking on the surface of the Moon while broadcasting the event live to over 600 million people. Well, that was in fact a “giant leap for mankind”.

   Add to this the electronic communication explosion that most of us have lived through from black and white text messages and 14,400 bps modems to “iPhones” and “whatsapp” and you’d have a world almost unrecognizable to those who still remember the horse and wagon days.

    This would all be very fine for people, except for some unpleasant details. World War II for example, where the human race lost probably over 70 million people. If it had happened because of “natural” forces like asteroids falling to earth or some other “natural” disaster like a giant flood described in the Bible that Noah and his family survived, that would be a terrible thing, but by the dark hand of evil men, well that’s left a stain on all this advance that makes it much more difficult to heal – to repair. Some people might say that the last century wasn’t worth even the air and water it cost, let alone the sunlight, and certainly not the human effort.

     I can imagine someone looking at the reports from the planet Earth, clicking his tongue and saying; “forget it – cancel their budget – not worth the effort”.

    The question becomes, “who pays for the losses here and who is the rightful benefactor of the advances?” The answer of course is “you and me” – for both, and that’s exactly where we are right now!    

  

      Practicality in the Space Age – New Economic Horizons

     So what does any of this really matter? There’s only so much personal importance one can place on the history of technology.  And, what good is it all anyhow? After all, there are people in Pennsylvania who have written off cars altogether and opted for horses and wagons again. What about life and death? Are we any closer to salvation as a race because of electronic communication? And so, we have to take a step back and look at all this. Really look – deep - at what this means to us and our children. I had to review my own career when I approached my graduation at Florida Atlantic University. I’d been a chemical engineer. I also worked as a technician for RCA on a NASA contract. We made one of the cameras they used on the Apollo program to send live pictures back to half a billion people on the Earth. My dad told me that his science teacher proved to the class that it was impossible to travel to the Moon. It just about was! It was a giant leap too! – for mankind – for everyone – and not everyone was an engineer. I had to look at this, of course, and measure my new career against a vastly changed technical background. “People did not need more science and technology”, I thought. It was already coming out of their ears. They wanted their children to understand how all these things worked, and they wanted to understand how all these things worked too. It’s not so complicated. It’s simple actually if you understand it well enough. Yet, it’s certainly not easy to do either. Try to manufacture a microscopic recording device in your garage that can hold billions of words and pictures as well. Hey, let’s include videos and half – if not more – of every movie you ever saw! I know how to do this! Well, some of it. I actually worked for Univac – now Unisys – way back in the 60’s on third generation RAM – (random access memories) – little tiny threads of nickel and iron plated copper wires that held a magnetic charge, that could be “read” by passing an electrical current through an appropriate network of other little threadlike wires. These were meant to replace ferromagnetic cores (tiny donuts of metal that held a magnetic charge). Since then, such systems have become sub-microscopic and the subject of “nano technology”. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do something like this too? You do! All the time. You’re doing it right now – and without wires! “Look Mom no wires!” You’re reading and thinking!  And so, I minored in Science Education and adapted my own interests and skills toward new economic horizons.

                              One Dream After Another

   OK so I wonder how many of you wanted to be an Astronaut? I know I did! Children catch on fairly quickly. There’s something that catches the imagination about riding downhill fast on your bicycle, watching videos of guys jumping off mountains with flying suits on – Captain Sky! And you grow up and all that’s left is teaching chemistry to high school students. Don’t laugh, that’s exactly what happened to me. You know why? Because people needed that more than they needed another back up Astronaut! There’s a practicality here that you need to understand. And that’s what this paper is all about. The question is: “What does the public need and want the most that you are already good at – that you like to do?” Most anyone can do just about anything, but nothing should ever get in the way of your dreams, quarterback on a world champion professional football team – throwing the game winning pass, Olympic gold in the 100 meters – breaking the world record! Easy to say, easy to dream – very difficult to do!
It’s not impossible for everyone to realize their fondest dreams – not at all. It starts with knowing yourself and being yourself – exactly yourself. And, who are you? You’re they guy – or girl – reading this and thinking about it. You’re what exhilarates when you cross the finish line ahead of everybody else! Most people forget who they really are. Their closest friends have to keep reminding them. There is much more to you than you’d believe – you’ve probably forgotten that much!

…Now – OK – “How much does this cost?” – it doesn’t cost anything! Except your own commitment to pulling yourself out of the mountain of mud that most people find themselves practically buried in all their lives!! It costs helping another person do the same thing! That’s how it’s done…

   It starts with knowing how to help a person through upsets, problems, things he’s hiding, from most everybody else, that clog up his communication lines which he needs open to handle the time he got kicked in the head when he was five years old on the playground and doesn’t remember a thing except lying on the ground and wondering what happened. Not one of these things but hundreds of them – thousands of them – ages gone – worlds gone – but a huge piece of him lies buried under the mud of a forgotten playground and the best friend he ever had knocking him silly in front of all his friends. Can you imagine?

   How do I know this? Well, I worked in it for years, because my career in Engineering didn’t do the trick – it was just fun, but it didn’t do what my friends needed – see? That’s what life in the space age demands!

   We're running a communication course here:

Saturdays at 11:00 am - if you are interested contact at:

https://www.facebook.com/CIC-Communication-Improvement-Course-174885823144994/

  

Summertime

                                                             Summertime

   Now, there are a lot of great memories of summer, wherever you're from.  At the top of my list has always been my bicycle. I still have a bike and ride it when I can. Also, way up top the list of my favorite things, apart from the seashore, of course, which is in a class by itself and demanded a long trip “down the shore” when I was younger, has to be chocolate bars and ice cream. Yes, definitely that. So the best you could do when I was a kid, was get on your bike and ride down to the drugstore and buy a “twin pop”, an ice pop of whatever flavor you chose, or a fudgsicle, a chocolate ice cream popsicle, which was a dream come true on a hot summer day - or – when Jack and Jill or the Good Humor ice cream truck would come around in the late afternoon, early evening and ring their bell and Dad would buy you an ice cream or give you a quarter to buy things for you and your younger brother, and you’d stand in line behind a bunch of neighbor kids all jumping up and down and laughing with the music from the truck and wild anticipation of the ice cream – and boy did they have good ice creams in those trucks! There was a special sound when the driver would open the door to the freezer. “Kerclunk” and the cold would come out – right out at you – and the smell and the smoke of the dry ice mixed with the sweet smell of chocolate covered ice cream would come out with it. Forget it, this was pure happy, and miles above anything the grown ups did. They just seem to have lost any hope of experiencing the pure joy of riding fast on your bike down a hill or biting into a chocolate covered ice cream popsicle on a July evening. When there was nothing – nothing at all in the way of a permanent, never ending path through the future up and up and forever of total joy – no limit – ever. Remember?

   Well – it sure did get better!! Girls. My G-d – Girls – what happened to all these pains in the neck and nuisances? They got more and more beautiful – hard to believe. Did you see that? Do you know her? Yep – an entirely new and higher plane of Happy!!

  

  

The Magic Tree Talks Back

                                                      The Magic Tree Talks Back

   OK - so this seems a bit silly, but, let me tell you - this is how it happens kiddo.

It was just a thought. "What if there were such a thing as a Magic Tree?" After all, there are

 fruit trees, acorn trees, maple sugar trees...Each tree has a different kind of product. I read 

a lot about medicines when I studied chemistry. Most of our actual medicines come from 

plants. Many cultures used plants to help them cure ills or heal injuries. You'd breathe the 

vapors of some plant that was burning and you'd stop sneezing or coughing. I used to think 

that smoking tobacco came from these types of cures. Then they started blaming tobacco 

for everything that was bad - probably wanted to sell their pills and didn't want any 

competition. Smoking tobacco is relaxing - it calms your nerves. They used to supply 

cigarettes with K - rations in the Army.  Not any more. They show pictures of people without 

throats on TV and tell you how bad it is. I never saw a picture of a person so messed up in 

the face and throat in my life - but there they are on TV. Glad I know about that. I wonder 

what the people look like that take their pills. Look - no one ever said that tobacco is good 

for your health, but I wonder. I can remember what a premium there was on good fresh 

American tobacco when I was over in the Middle East. You couldn't even get it - just really 

cheap - really bad Turkish junk - Egyptian tobacco - ugh - horrible. Today, tobacco is 

practically illegal. Marijuana is good for your health - it cures things - see? Come on. 

What?? 

   I was just thinking about these things - just tossing these ideas around in my mind when 

the Magic Tree spoke to me. No, I wasn't smoking anything at all...It said - "smoking  

tobacco is really rough on the lungs you know"  I looked around and thought "what?" 

"Yeah, it continued, there are all kinds of really great smelling flowers and plants - oils, you 

know - like pine - fruit trees - citrus - all kinds of stuff that actually cure ills by supplying 

missing materials to your body!! They also are continually checking up on your health. 

that's one of the things we do!!" And I swear he was looking at me...

World Changing Events That Surpass Even Windows 10 And the ICloud

               World Changing Events That Surpass Even Windows 10 And the ICloud

                                                    Part I

   I recently checked what people thought were the most significant world events. As you would imagine - the list began with the Greeks defeating the Persians, etc. - the Roman Empire - etc. - Martin Luther - the American Revolution - we're skipping a few of course - the the Industrial Revolution, WWI and WWII - communications satellites - the internet - and Taco Bell..not exactly in that order - but close. BEWARE...THIS IS LARGELY WESTERN CIVILIZATION - and this is generally how they have been educated. None of this is necessarily true, but large parts of this history have been witnessed and recorded and you can review many books and pictures, letters and other recordings, to your own satisfaction and draw your own conclusions. Still, this is what the scrapbook of Western Man looks like. 

   The Bible also records a series of events of magnitude over a span of many centuries and generations of men. It includes names and locations as well as careful descriptions of names of persons and families, tribes of persons, plants and animals, struggles, pleasures and pains,  and a current of "life can be tough - get used to it" - and - here's what's good and here's what's bad - so if you mess up don't say I didn't warn you. "This world is not a resort, you are dead meat no matter what you do, so you'd better listen up and make the most of the time you're here." 

   Most people are turned on somewhat by the challenge, do the best they can to stay out of trouble, and try a thing or two all their own to make a name for themselves...

   If you've read down this far, you haven't wasted your time. This world's power structure has recently changed - and - that's very good for all of us. We're looking at a much brighter future, despite thousands of years of sinking deeper and deeper into the mud and confusing hopelessness with.life. It's not supposed to be that way. 

The first Kosher Deli in the Middle East

The first Kosher Deli in the Middle East

   

   My brother Denny and I sold our house and most everything else we owned, bought tickets for an El Al flight to Lod, Israel and were off to a brand new start in life. My father had passed away and it seemed like a good time to take a long vacation. We had much to learn about who we were - or thought we were - or even where we were. 
   I remember a short stocky man with a beret in the airport when we arrived. He carried a stalk of bananas over his shoulder. This was different. This was not going to be the same as I thought. A camel's head passed by the high window of the Hebrew language  classroom we sat in on the first day of classes in Carmiel, Israel. The class tittered. It was not expected, but there he was. What was this country really about? 
   There was a general enthusiasm among the Israelis. They had just won an impossible war. It was like David vs Goliath. The whole world expected Israel to be crushed and instead they beat the pants off of a hundred million Arabs. It was, indeed, amazing. This is what drove me to decide to find out what Israel was about - to take a break in my own struggles and look at things from another perspective, while I had the opportunity. 
   There were some problems, of course, that were totally unexpected. Imagine, just imagine for a moment; Israel, a country where you would expect everything to be Jewish - you know - bagels, lox, kosher pickles - corned beef specials. Forget it. The only bagels in Israel might have been at the King David Hotel - maybe - but certainly not on the menu. How can Israel be a Jewish country without bagels and lox? You think I'm kidding you! I'm not!! The closest corned beef special was, perhaps, one thousand miles away in in the south of France!! - if that!! "Jewish" was not Jewish - not the Jewish I learned! No way. This was all explained to me by a classmate in The Ben Gurion University of the Negev when we were studying "instrumentation" for chemical analysis. He was an American like myself. "These people are not Jewish Bill"  He was religious and wore his kippah everywhere. He was also a very bright student and was doing his master's degree. He must know what he is talking about.    ...In fact both he and I were Ashkenazim (European Jews) as opposed to most of the Israelis who were Sepharadim (Spanish or Jews from North Africa and the Middle East). In fact, it would become much clearer to me later that the Jewish I knew about was really "Europe". Indeed - My father's family were from Lithuania - "Litvaks" and my mother's family were from Ukraina - Kiev - the Ukraine - the home of stuffed cabbage and possibly corned beef. Who knows? I sure didn't. Where was I? My Israeli born wife, who's dad was from Berlin, and mom from Holland, had maybe an inkling of what I was talking about and could cook up matzo ball soup, still looked at me funny when I tried to explain what a corned beef special was - or corned beef at all. Instead she'd fry up some "Schnitzel - or turkey fried like veal with breadcrumbs and sauce. It was actually pretty good. She made eggs with tomatoes and I don't know quite what, but it was called "Shakshuka"  and was and is very popular in Israel. Before I go any further here, two things that are very important. One, the bread in Israel is incredibly good - so are the breakfasts. Eggs and fresh vegetables, sour cream - all garden fresh and very nutritious. Israel has a climate all its own of course and thousands of years of tradition for preparing local dishes - all excellent. Two, I lived in Judea - the ancient and modern home of the Jewish (Judean people) - it was very Jewish - totally Jewish there - only I was thousands of years behind and thousands of years away from my ancestral homeland. 
   After the Ulpan (teaching center) in Carmiel,  my brother and myself moved to Bat Yam, where I'd met my future wife and decided to work at cooking up something that would seem like home. Pizza. Which at that time was totally impossible. Maybe it was the lack of seasoning, the wrong dough, maybe the tomato sauce or the cheese. Who knows? It didn't work. Didn't even come close. Right around the corner though was a stand with an electric spit and lamb on a rotisserie which a guy sliced as it turned and put the meat into a pita with vegetables and sauce. Heavens - here it was - the Middle East - Deli - these guys knew what they were doing!! They call it Shwarma - wow - beats corned beef any day of the week!! It wasn't long and we began to catch on. You're not going to find Vermont Maple Syrup on the bayou in Louisiana - or fresh brook trout in Saudi Arabia - or probably not. But, goodness, Israel and the Middle East have their share of very fine food - and believe me - it's totally Jewish - and kosher too!!...

...it's not real until the money's in the bank...

...OK - so it's a strange title! Let's call it different. Whatever you call it, it still rings true - most everyplace on this world where they honor VISA credit cards. "It is a very strange world we live in Master Jack."
     Making things happen is at once a very simple thing to do and again a very difficult thing to do at times. I feel proud that we were able to come out from under - literally - this road accident as well as we did. I still feel bad about Tuffy. I miss Tuffy still, but I sure do appreciate our new vehicle. Four years newer - approximately the same low mileage - and so many fine things and qualilties. Most of all the newness and feel of it. All leather upholstery, power everything - a seat warmer - the satellite radio - the cargo space - the ride - and I haven't even had it out of 4wd yet!! It seemed to be running a bit rough when we stopped on the I-91 overpass today - but I don't know. It was a very bad day to drive with all the black ice. I kept it close to 20 mph even on the best surfaces. Pulling out from the bank I scrunched against something - got out and checked - only low rocks and stuff that the tire went over - thank you!! We'll see. We have full power train warranty for about six years or something. Lot's of great coverage eh? And, of course, we have Corin and his Trusty crew - the in-charge of the advanced Sea Organization - good grief  - and I thought all was incredibly great already on our last cycle of - getting to know the next person better...Wow - we are doing just great...
   Have so many calls to make...

...miracles...

...miracles are what saved this ship. In fact, this ship is just about constructed of miracles. We had just about lost all contact with reality. My story, our work, simply didn't take, and not for the first time or ten thousandth time or many more either. Each time was new - each time was "it"" - the time. The time that it would take and we would be - yes - in the universe of creation, and, the difference this time was that it worked!! There's no ha ha like the last ha ha when the last ha ha is "it"...Many of you will be wondering - "what in the world is he talking about?"- so let me explain. It's what you say it is. It always is - in fact. except most of the time, what you say it is, gets mixed up with stuff that you actually didn't author at all. It gets mixed up with a nightmare you had when you were six years old and have since forgotten about. It gets mixed up with a TV commercial that hooked some of your attention and fed it back to you when you slept. It gets altered by someone who simply didn't like you and who nearly habitually nixes anything you might originate. So, you fix this up and that up and stop watching that commercial or speaking to that person who simply doesn't like you - and more - much more - and again and again - and yes, finally it's opening night and you're "on" in this universe that's moved along with our ideas - and it works. You know it when it works. It all goes right and it is very very special. This happened last night - live on a phone call that I so much wanted to hear. Like when the girl turned and smiled back at you and said what you always wanted to hear - like when your dad bought you that new bicycle you wanted so much - but much much broader and brighter - because now your magic wand - which we all have by the way - writes the truth and it happens. And what secret turned the trick you might want to ask - or should have asked - and I'll tell you. People - people are much much more than you have been going along and thinking, and in the universe of people, they are very particular about which scripts they will pick up and read and which they will not. And, when they find a story they really like - well - they'll let you know...