Remember the Coast Guard Too
Petty Officer Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guard combat death since the Vietnam War.
Prayers of gratitude for those to whom we owe so much. Prayers for the family and friends he left behind.
America's Coast Guard men and women have fought alongside other military branches since the nation's beginnings. The picture, and the news story quotes below, are from the Arlington National Cemetery memorial site.
"We're all very proud of Nathan. He did what he was destined to do," said Nathan Bruckenthal's mother...
* * *
"He leaves behind his 25-year-old wife, who is three months pregnant."
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"He called his wife three times the day before he died."
* * *
"Nate gave unconditionally and that is why he was so loved in this community..."
* * *
"Nate looked like a bulldog, but really he wasn't... He was a good guy."
Preservatives
Freedom is achieved by the determined and deliberate use of added ingredients.
The right to vote is a preservative of freedom.
The right to keep and bear arms is a preservative of freedom.
Civilian control of the military ("citizen soldiers") is a preservative of freedom.
So you see, "100% Natural" and "No Preservatives" might seem appetizing at the Farmers' Market, but is unhealthy in the body politic.
I'll keep my Freedom Preservatives, thank you. This weekend in the USA we get a chance to do some serious thanking, as we celebrate Memorial Day.
Eclipse Light Show
Annular <> Annual
It's Annulur, as in annulus. Ring. Torus. Doughnut.
Not: Annual, as in happening every year.
I did not try to count the number of times the professional talking head news readers have said "annual" instead of "annular" with regard to the eclipse. Yeah, right, of course -- the annual eclipse! So it must be coming up on 20 May again, we have an eclipse every 20 May, right? That's why it's called, um, Eclipse Day. Or something. News readers -- engage mouth, turn off brain, and wait for your big break on television.
The orbit of the moon around the earth is only approximately coplanar with the orbit of the earth around the sun. The period of the moon's orbit around the earth does not divide evenly into the period of the earth's orbit around the sun. These two things make the timing and location of eclipses somewhat irregular.
Annie Dillard in the "Solar Eclipse" chapter of Teaching a Stone to Talk: "Seeing this black body was like seeing a mushroom cloud. The heart screeched. The meaning of the sight overwhelmed its fascination. It obliterated meaning itself." That's a total eclipse experience. Deep-night darkness rushing up and over you for a few minutes at astronomical speed. Today's is only a special kind of partial eclipse where I live, so I'm saved having to scream in primal terror.
I like a good lunar eclipse better anyway because I can view it directly.
The astronomical experience that would be cool to see (I think) would be the moon eclipsing Venus or Jupiter or one of the other planets. Equally infrequent, and mathematically/astronomically interesting. But hardly something to get the talking heads talking.
Armed Forces Day USA
Today is another opportunity to remember a few things.
First, I owe my life and freedom to these people who do the hardest jobs.
Second, they can't do all the fighting. No extent of armed force will avail the people against the darkness of a tyranny that is tolerated, invited, in-voted by enslaved minds. Freedom is in peril -- defend it with all your might.
Clues
Here is Salvador Dali, searching. Probably searching for melted clocks or anatomy drawers.
A search is possible, if the searcher is not the only thing that exists.
"A man can look at this little pile on his bureau for thirty years and never once see it. It is as invisible as his own hand. Once I saw it, however, the search became possible. I bathed, shaved, dressed carefully, and sat at my desk and poked through the little pile in search of a clue just as the detective on television pokes through the dead man's possessions, using his pencil as a poker."
"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. … To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."
- Binx, the narrator in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer
I have more posts tagged "clues" than any other tag on crowndot.com. That is itself a clue. My preferred computer-game screen name going way back to the original Russian version of Tetris on the 286 PS2 ("Ooh. VGA!") was "Binx." Another clue.
Is "The Truth" something that is "out there"? I am sure there are clues. It might turn out that The Truth is less like a MacGuffin and more like a person: an endlessly fascinating, inexplicable and ineffable being.
New in the Garden
This is the third season since this was planted as a tiny bare-root specimen. As I recall, it is called a Honey-(something)... Honey Perfume? Honey-and-mustard? Honey-do-list?
At any rate, it has a great fragrance!
The rose is posing here in the late afternoon sunlight on Monday, 14 May 2012, with a bug sidekick.
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After 31 Years of Marriage...
Life, transcribed:
Crownwife, being shown the wound on my foot: Eeew. Is that from...
Crowndot: Remember the other day? When I said, "Ouch!"? And then I said, "I'm bleeding!"? And you were unconcerned?
Crownwife: I was not "unconcerned". I was staying calm.
Values. Have. Cost.
I bet the cost is less when it's at the level of getting informed, e-mailing legislators, and voting. I mean before it's, like, World War Four or the Battle of Gettysburg or something.
What's Ten Extra Pounds?
Ten 16.9 ounce water bottles. Roughly ten pounds. Seemed pretty heavy when I carried them into the living room for the photo.
So here's the question:
Why would I want to carry that much weight around under my skin all day every day and even every time I go running?
Ten extra pounds may not seem like a lot to most people. But I know I felt better before I started carrying this around. I'm healthy enough now to do something about it. If I could only keep it in mind!
