Marin’s Boggle Blog

My father was in the US Air Force and when I was a child he was transferred often; seven times before I finished college and four of those while I was in elementary school. Our family home was never very cluttered with possessions because we regularly had to weed them out, pack and move on. My recent years have become far too settled in comparison in that I haven’t moved much for the last 3o years, and not at all for the last 15 except for an all too brief trip to graduate school. Most of my possessions even during that time, however, remained at home. So, I have more than my share of clutter now.

I decided recently to end the glut and get rid of all the junk around me. I needed to be ruthless and throw it all away! So I headed into my room with garbage bag in hand and determination in my heart.

I opened the first drawer - one I had noticed not too long ago that seemed to be bulging. Inside it the very first things I found were the last birthday card my mother ever sent me before her Alzheimer’s set in… the only photograph my brother and I ever took together with Santa Claus… and all my son’s baby and school-years photos which I have sadly never organized. Shame, shame! He could very well be the only young man on the planet whose mother never documented his life in perfectly ordered albums!

I sat for a long time and thought about what a bad start I was off to. How can one be ruthless with “clutter” like that, I asked myself!? After a time I decided that there might still be time to do that album before my son finds a wife (maybe…) and as for the rest - well, I just closed the drawer and moved to the drawers with clothes in them. I had much better success there, telling myself that each item I threw away was actually making room for a “new” one, maybe. A future with shopping!!

If only I could throw away those other possessions that represent glorious memories, and then have the prospect of shiny and wonderful new experiences in the future. However, I know that the task of clearing it out once and for all will probably fall to my children, just as it fell to me to clean out after my mother’s death. It was a bittersweet time alone with the memories that each item vividly evoked. Her life. Her love. Her devotion to her family. Her abiding faith in God. All of these were her gifts to me that possessions could never provide. So maybe I will just leave that drawer closed for a while longer.

I do worry, though, about my son’s potential photo album…

 Recently I went for a walk along a path I have not taken for quite some time. Many of the potholes had grown larger and there were new ones. It’s not the sort of path that will be repaved very often, but as it runs along a main highway it does cross other larger roads. I noticed that at several of these crossroads there were new nicely painted pedestrian crossings alongside clearly marked bicycle paths. After a few streets, however, I also noticed that my fellow pedestrians were paying absolutely no attention to these markings and crossing wherever and pretty much whenever they liked. At one busier crossing things deteriorated completely. While I waited for the traffic light to change in our favor I was joined by four other “power walkers” and five cyclists on their way home from work and school. Finally, the light changed and the four power walkers proceeded to cross in the clearly marked bicycle lane! The cyclists meanwhile headed out over the pedestrian stripes! Me? Well… I just walked along the wide line separating the two lanes, all the while wondering whether the paint had been wasted or not. I guess if it made us realize that this was a place to be careful while we crossed, then it wasn’t a waste. But, so much for obeying “the letter of the law!” 

    May 11, 2009

These days our news is full of information about the H1N1 flu, previously called swine flu. Real swine flu sometimes occurs in pigs in the United States and other countries, including Japan. When I was in the US in 1976 there was a strange human outbreak that resulted in one death and several hospitalizations and I remembering getting a swine flu shot at that time. There were jokes about the swine flu as many people had never heard that pigs could catch influenza! Then-President Ford was photographed getting a shot to encourage people to become immunized. At first with this present epidemic I got really tired of all the updates – there were so many that they became “inundates” instead – but, generally I agree that the World Health Organization has to control and contain new viruses that affect humans. This virus has now been identified as a strain very much like swine flu found in pigs, but cannot actually be traced to swine as the source of the virus. When I was talking to my son this weekend about the epidemic he said something interesting. His friend who is an AIDS counselor said only two people in the US have died of this disease so far and everyone is wearing a mask! Yet nearly 15,000 people died of AIDS in the United States in 2007, but it is still difficult to get people to practice safe sex and use condoms. We humans are strange. I hope we will have a vaccination for H1N1 and that the disease will be contained soon.

  June 16, 2009

Rainy season 2009 finally decided to bless us with some rain. It’s been raining for several days now off and on and sometimes it has literally poured. Maybe the pools will open for the summer after all! Maybe we don’t have to ration water after all! That seems good, don’t you agree? But, somehow on second thought it worries me a lot. Not because I enjoy summers of water rationing, or because I think pools are dangerous or unnecessary, but because I know that people are lazy basically. Now that yet another rainy season which started out have multiple reasons for us to be careful of our precious water has turned out better after all, I fear we – as well as those in our city hall whose job it is to solve the water problems we continue to have – will once again relax our guard and our resolve to do something until it all happens over again next year. Is anyone out there as tired as I am of this vicious cycle!? Enough rain or not, silly old woman that I am I want the problem fixed. Perhaps I alone feel that way? I’m just not at all confident that megumi no ame (Rain through God’s grace) is a concept to put our faith in.

Have you ever had trouble with one of those phone answering systems that ask you a question and tell you which number to push to register your answer? Many such systems in the US have switched to voice recognition technology. When the voice asks a question you can merely say “2” or “yes” or “existing reservations.” This is far easier if you are calling by cell or wireless phone. But, on a recent trip to Atlanta I overheard a woman from Europe “talking” on a cell phone to one of the automatic voice answer systems. She didn’t realize it wasn’t a real person and was having a terrible time telling the voice what she wanted. “That rude woman just hung up on me!” she announced. I offered to help and together we got her through the preliminary questions and to a live person who could help her. When her call was done she thanked me and apologized for her poor English skills. But, I assured her that the first time I used one of these systems several years ago, I also had trouble and the voice hung up on me, too! It’s maybe nicer to talk to a machine than to push buttons, but it can be just as confusing.

Last week I went to Hawaii on business. Yes, business!

Can you imagine spending almost a week in Hawaii and not going there mainly to enjoy a vacation? I went to Hilo on the island of Hawai’i, also called the Big Island. I had never been to Hilo before and was very pleasantly surprised at how far less touristy it is than Honolulu.

Besides the beaches and the beautiful sea, nearby Hilo are two mountains, both taller than Mt. Fuji! One is an active volcano that regularly sends ash into the air and molten lava down to the shore. The other is home to an observatory.

Not having time for a nature tour, however, for me the most amazing thing was the stars in the sky each night. I could see them twinkling brightly and it seemed there were billions of them visible to the naked eye. For the first time since my childhood I could clearly see the filmy swatch of white that we call the Milky Way and I felt renewed and refreshed in a way that a day off from work simply does not ever provide.

It was truly a vacation of the spirit each night to catch a glimpse of that sky, a sight we cannot enjoy in our well-lighted cities. 

Last month while I was in Washington D.C., I visited the National Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute for the sixth time. My purpose was the special exhibit about the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville. It detailed their family life and their invention of the first engine powered heavier-than-air machine piloted by a human.

What was more interesting, however, was the information about their family and facts of the story I had never heard before. For example, the Wrights came from a very close-knit and supportive family. Their mother, Susan, had considerable mechanical aptitude. She designed simple appliances for her own housework and made interesting toys for her children. Wilbur and Orville often consulted her when they needed mechanical assistance or advice.

The part of the exhibit about Susan is titled “The Mother of Invention,” meaning Susan and not necessity as we usually say. Also detailed was how much work went into discovering and perfecting the technology of flight. The brothers didn’t merely try and try again until they succeeded. Instead, they learned from each mistake and documented everything carefully—the best way to learn from life’s experiences after all.

If you want to read about the exhibit and practice English, too, try this web site: http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/

On the northwest side of my dormitory here at Harvard there is a large yard. Last fall, it was a favorite place for students to relax while reading or to stretch out in the sunshine and take a nap.

Then colder weather came and one day I noticed workmen had come and marked off a huge rectangle in the grass. A work crew brought steel beams and placed them around the perimeter of the rectangle. Heavy plastic sheeting was put down and I was sure the grass would die.

My heart fell. “Are they going to build a building there?” I wondered. “That will ruin everything!”

But soon workmen had made a fence of sorts around the outside and a ramp on the west. Then they filled the plastic sheeting with water from a huge hose. That night in the sub-zero temperatures the water froze and two workmen came back with special wide rubber paddles and more water. They worked all day to make the surface smooth and shiny; then they hung icicle lights high around the area.

Now I know what people here do in the long, cold frozen winter. They make outdoor ice skating rinks and they enjoy them with their families and friends right outside their doors!

 Just two subways stops away from Harvard is MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). But, in good weather the nicest way to get there is to walk along the Charles River which borders both universities and separates them from Boston.

I walked there last week and learned the following: The word hack (and thus hacker) originated at MIT. Now it usually means illegal entry to computer systems, but it originally meant any clever or inspired way of accomplishing a difficult feat and at MIT it still means that.

People here look forward to each new “hack” and many of them are quite spectacular.

The first “hack” was in 1928 when students managed to thread a 35-foot telegraph pole through a dormitory. The code of ethics of the various “hack attacks” is that they should be witty, imaginative, safe, inoffensive, but very intricate.

For example, in December, 2003, the hackers managed to put a replica of the Wright Brothers’ plane on top of the Great Dome, the symbol building of MIT.

The interesting thing is that no one ever knows who the perpetrators are! They remain anonymous if the hack is to be called successful.

If you want to see more about hack attacks, go to http://hacks.mit.edu/.

Last weekend I survived my first blizzard.

There was more than 1 meter of snow some places with wind gusts of 100 km whipping it into huge drifts with overhanging crests that looked like the sea waves in a Hiroshige woodblock print. The storm lasted from early Saturday evening until Sunday night, and the low temperature of minus 20° was only 1 degree warmer than the record set in 1888.

Unlike 1888, however, there was plenty of warning that a severe storm was coming. Everyone prepared like Japanese do for typhoons. The timing was fortunate as most people had planned to stay home on Saturday night to watch the important playoff games of professional football.

On Sunday most people enjoyed a lazy day watching the snow bury their cars and pile up around their windows and doors. When the storm was over they began to dig out.

I wondered why I didn’t see any snowmen or snowball fights, but when I touched the snow I realized it was light, dry and powdery. It was impossible to form a snowball. Every time the wind blows today flakes are lifted into the air and in the sunshine it appears the air is filled with diamonds.

Maybe I can learn to love winter after all.