Posted from Mhlambanyati, Swaziland

Africa is full of contradictions. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, which is our next stop, are no exception. In so many of these areas the indigenous populations were conquered by colonizing nations such as England, Portugal and Holland during the previous 300-400 years. Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s the reigning parties were shown the door and the remaining entities vied for power. Most of the time these were the rich whites who were a minority but had the money. Depending on whose side you are on there was an uneasy truce if one at all. In many but not all the future is unclear.

Our first stop was Zimbabwe where the attraction was the magnificent Victoria Falls. Many times larger and deeper than Niagara it provides almost singlehandedly for the local economy.The cascading beauty of the Zambezi River has guides aplenty. Hotels are well staffed and the people cheerful. The country itself has 75% unemployment. The people do anything and everything to exist. Their long time black leader, Robert Mugabe can be considered hero and tyrant in the same breath. Be careful not to speak openly or you could be arrested.

Our guide Dummie(DOOMAY) and I hit it off right from the start. After a quick stop at our hotel he took us to a township which is best characterized as a poor run down area. The market where people sold foodstuffs was shabby at best. It was all some of them had. We went and had tea with Raymond and Priscilla in their home. They had built it themselves and if they stayed long enough they could keep it and call it their own. Probably about ten years. It was clean and of good size. They survived by selling vegetables from the backyard. They seemed affluent by comparison.

Our next stop was the Hope Orphanage which during the daytime was home to around 50 kids but they only had room for about 20 overnight.The rest were shipped out to other families in town.They all came back for their one meal a day. They greeted us by singing and dancing. They weren’t begging. They just wanted us to be at home. I sat on the ground in the courtyard and they were scrambling toward me to shake my hand and rub my bald head. They passed my old white floppy hat around taking turns putting it on and giggling. I was smitten as was Kathy who held a 6 month old girl in her arms to the point I thought we were going to be adding to our family again. As we left they were singing thank you and waving until we were out of sight down a dusty lane. Tough act to follow.

Why did we do all this? It put so much in perspective. There is so much natural resource wealth in these parts but the populace who are incredibly literate and industrious have no way to bring this to fruition. Foreign industrialists and governments are loathe to invest because of the political insecurity and the beat goes on. I asked my buddy Dummie if he was happy? He said his people were naturally happy and cheerful. They have learned to cope and he was so grateful he had a job. He shared with others less fortunate. He bade me good bye at the airport with a hug and a handshake and pronounced,”You are my brother, just by a different mother.” Incredible experience.

Fast forward to the ride from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park. We passed though mile upon mile of coal and corn fields, citrus groves, and banana plantations, while going up and down mountains of granite. We could have been anywhere from Florida, to Nebraska to Colorado. You keep thinking this was supposed to be the cradle of civilization as we know it and perchance the true Garden of Eden. South Africa is nothing short of amazing and we are just getting started.

A 4:30 AM wakeup call heralded the day to be spent at Kruger. In the lobby I did my best rendition of Wimoweh and luckily my fellow travelers were too sleepy to be throwing things. This national park is about the size of Massachusetts! We travelled probably 200 miles over the 10 hours in the park atop our safari Range Rover and yet we experienced just a minuscule part of the experience. The vastness was mind boggling.

We viewed, antelope, elephants, giraffe, kundu, Cape buffalo, lions,rhinos, hippos and leopards. We actually saw all the Big 5 which is not always predictable. Adrian, our guide chattered back and forth with his cohorts in any one of 11 official SA languages. They traded sightings and were probably making comments about their crazy American passengers. Toward the end of our trek we watched three lions try to peel off a Cape buffalo from the herd. They failed and the guide said the lions do not go more than 100 yards in chase. I of course said the Detroit Lions only ran 100 yards too. Boo,hiss TTG. Now cut that out!

Back at the hotel I sat on the patio and had my glass of red and a cigar. As I looked out I could have been in Tuscany or Napa.How much of our world is the same and yet why are we so far apart? The chef came out to tend to his barbecue. His name was Night and we talked for almost one half hour. He told me of his dreams to own a restaurant. He had been to culinary school and wanted a chance to show his stuff. A little difficult when you are feeding forty or fifty people at once on a buffet line. He asked that I tell folks back home that his people were friendly, gentle and welcoming. I said I hoped I would be back to eat in his restaurant someday.

As I said last week a friend told me when I saw the animals in their natural habitat it would change me forever. That may be true but I have a feeling that my new friends might do the same. It’s kind of fun to just know people on a human level regardless of their politics. Haven’t seen the news in a week….and have not missed it a bit. See you on down the road.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

People in the townships build their houses when they have the money. It takes them a year to build one room. Then they all live in that until they have money to build another room. No mortgages.

South Africa has an enormous number of immigrants and most are illegal. The are 7 million Zimbabweans alone to add to SA’s population of 55 million. That would be like 50 million to America. They look the other way because it is right. Otherwise the interlopers would die. There is no welfare in Zimbabwe. They have to fend for themselves. In SA there is a small stipend.

There are huge forests of eucalyptus trees because they grow quickly. Amazingly these were brought from New Zealand and not a native species.

The antelope have coloring on their tails that looks like an M….the Golden Arches They number in the tens of thousands in Kruger and so they are considered fast food for lions. The old lion that was killed by the American dentist although illegally lured wasn’t of much use as a progenitor. Old enough to scare off the more virile young studs but not to increase the pride. Good press. Finally elephants are plentiful in southwest Africa. They when their 6th set of molars disintegrate and they are no longer able to eat their 250 kilos of greenery per day. They starve to death.

Africans walk everywhere. Several miles is considered a short stroll. Most are lean. There are very few bikes. They are considered too provincial. Of the 55 million people in SA only 10 million can afford cars.

Posted on arrival at Johannesburg,RSA

Ted and Kathy’s Magical Mystery Tour is going dark for the next few weeks. We are enroute to South Africa and Zimbabwe. As of now we are just finishing our journey of nearly 10,000 miles in a 24 hour period. The hop from Denver to Dulles seemed like a ride around the block. The trek from the US to Africa seemed never ending. As usual my thoughts wander on a number of different levels. The last time we were this far from home was our adventure in Australia and New Zealand. Feels familiar but strangely different at the same time.

Traveling, you feel a sense of detachment as to what you are leaving behind and at the same time excitement and uncertainty about what lies ahead.CNN was on in the United Club at Dulles and I can’t say I will be longing for Bernie or the Donald any time soon. We speak of inequality here in the US and indeed there is such an affliction. But I still have to think about how much we have on both ends of the economic scale. Redistribution of wealth is not an acceptable doctrine but neither is poverty and survival of the fittest. 25% of South Africa lives on $1.25 per day. We ain’t doing bad!
South Africa is home to around 52 million people and therein lies the enigma. My vision of the metropolises of Johannesburg and Cape Town is crowded out by the vast reaches of savannah and jungle that I know are out there. A glass of red and a cigar at some lodge or outpost just won’t feel like my old front porch. I don’t think Starbucks has made it to Lesotho or Kruger. And that is a good thing.
Our flight plan took us over the Atlantic with a fuel stop in Ghana. Ironically the voyage took place overnight and the occasional light or loom of a city did not betray the borders that we all fight so much about. We passed over Senegal,Ivory Coast ,Birkana Faso and Namibia to name a few. At that hour everything and everyone looked the same. Kind of cool. China wants to extend its boundaries a gazillion miles into the South China Sea. Putin looks for footholds. The Dutch and English both had their turns at setting up colonies and finally giving up when it was no longer in their best interests. Is it just me or is the world just some huge chess board? The game has been going on for centuries with a lot of people being used during that time as mere pawns.
This will be a totally different brand of travel from our shipboard experiences. On the good ship Lollipop you pulled in someplace at 8:00AM and threw the lines off for departure at 6:00PM. Don’t be late or you are stuck. Hit the high spots and come back another day for more in depth study. For covering a lot of ground in a few days it can’t be beat.We will be on a so called land tour. We hop on a plane a few times in country but the majority is covered by some sort of coach. There are 16 other fellow travelers and just getting to know people from different parts of the country or world will be an interesting diversion.

It almost makes you want to be a backpacker or hitch hiker. Trying as best as one can to experience the real people beyond the souvenir stalls and glitzy restaurants. Not sure how well this would work in the “townships”. Probably a better move in New Zealand. There is a huge unemployment problem in SA and elsewhere. People have moved from the hinterlands to the city in search of a better life. From Zimbabwe,Botswana and Namibia to green pastures so to speak. Sound familiar? Housing and sanitation are a best a long shot. There are shacks of corrugated metal a stone’s throw from the downtown business and shopping sections. There is a large problem with crime because in the most simplistic terms it is the only way some of these people can survive. All within miles of a metro area of 6 million people.

Of course you say, “Why are you going there?” Victoria Falls beckons. Larger, more majestic and less commercial than Niagara is good for starters. In Kruger the “Big Five” (rhino, elephant, lion, leopard and cape buffalo) are there for the watching. Probably won’t run into the dentist from Minnesota. Many people have told me that the sight of these creatures in all their natural glory will change you. Not sure if Kathy is ready for one more change from me. Oddly neither the Far East nor India holds any special interest but this call of the wild is real. I will let you know.

I will keep it short and who knows when my poor old head will dump core again. As usual I just wanted to share some quick thoughts and anticipations. Our sense of adventure is going strong.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
The Dark Continent was named such because of the mysterious and unknown parts that were undiscovered and unknown especially in the late 18th century. Joseph Conrad fueled the fire.

The area around Cape Town was originally started as a way station of sorts for ships going from Europe to India. They stopped for fresh water and fruits and vegetables. Incredibly the settlement needed more than the local population to provide labor and so slaves were imported from the Indian Ocean countries to the east.

The Cape of Good Hope was just that…a wing and a prayer. The confluence of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans created a maelstrom of winds, currents and high seas bringing many sailors to an early grave.

I started out this week thinking about education. I have had interactions with all of our seven grandkids these past few days and you can’t help but think what is going on in those fertile brains ranging from 4-11 years. We are very fortunate because they are doing well in their own way. How does that happen? You look for common denominators and the two that stand out to me the most are creativity and parental interest.

I cogitated on our educational system both elementary and higher and tried to figure out if our kid’s kids are being best served. We have spent billions if not trillions trying to figure out what is the best way to get our kids up to speed. Over the decades we still have maintained a consistent model :construct a curriculum,lay it out there, and then test them to see if they absorbed it. Functionality at its best. I guess when you are educating 50 million kids you have to have some sort of common core not to use a worn out phrase. But it ain’t working.

The main thing about this learning thing is asking questions. You are pumped up about something and you want to know more about it. The “Why” questions of young’uns while maddening, demonstrate a desire. Our response is patient to a point and then we throw our hands up in exasperation and say,”Because I said so”. Also functionality at its best.

Now the triple fork in the road. Either the child is persistent, does the research on their own or they just meander on down life’s highway thinking, don’t go off script. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid and don’t rock the boat. School is no different. The teacher has a lesson plan to teach. He or she can’t go off topic because they have to get through this by Thursday or they are behind. They’ve got 23 minds to mold and can’t take time out for neither the inquisitive nor the laggard. Just the way the system works. And yet that curiosity thing is in all of us.

Leonardo Da Vinci is my hero if you have read many of my previous treatises. He knew how to think with the best of them. In his book on DaVinci, Michael Gelb writes of Curiositae. That insatiable desire to learn more, to seek other solutions or to just challenge common theory is the thing we are all born with. Sadly it does not increase but rather ebbs with age. As parents we get tired of it. Our schools squander it. Our big corporations discourage it. And in the end society tells us to stay within the lines. Slow down TTG. Why do you worry about that stuff? Life is not an adventure but something to be lived in passive obeisance. Just play by the rules and you will get a gold watch in 25 years. What a minute! That was fifty years ago.
I don’t have the cure for our ills today but I do understand that a structure that places a premium on multiple choice rather than essay is going to turn out just that. We wonder why high school graduates need remedial help in reading and writing after being accepted into college? We just had to regurgitate back to the teacher what we had been told. The right answer is the one I gave you and any independent thought is gravely frowned upon in this institution.
We want to call out the teacher but I am not sure if they have any real control over it. The most talented feel their own creativity being repressed and it has to be devastating. We stand up and cheer with tears in our eyes at Good Will Hunting or Mr Holland’s Opus but all that crap is not going to get my son or daughter into a top 10 school. Mom and Dad want results on the SAT’s or else.

Therein lies the second part of the puzzle I have laid out. Parents are a funny lot. They are either happy to have the school district as full time babysitters or they hound and harass until the teacher puts in for an unlisted phone number. Many and especially those of lower economic means have at least one full-time job. At the end of a long day they don’t have time or desire to help with homework. They miss valuable lessons at the dinner table or on a weekend sightseeing trip. Listen kid, I have my life and you have yours.

Right now you are either nodding in agreement or feeling a little squeamish. I have watched numerous specials on the topic and read more than a number of articles and rarely if ever are the parents mentioned either as a consenting adult or absentee owner in this process.They are the first teacher for any child. They set the tone and environment. Is that one of interest and involvement or dismissal and placement of said object in front of the TV for endless periods of wakefulness? Even if the interest is present, there is a “Phew! My job is done,” as Jane or Johnnie is put in the safe hands of preschool.

Like anything else in this man’s world we believe the solution is in more money. We have superimposed a whole new bureaucracy on our educational system. Counselors, security guards, advisors, and superintendents to the superintendents. We have built new schools to provide an ambience while learning. Yet the numbers go down. Why?

I think we have to rethink this whole thing. The first and foremost of the R’s have to include reading and writing. Not part of the program in the first years but THE PROGRAM. If you can’t read the text or the computer screen you can’t learn. If you can’t express yourself in words as well as speech how can you go further unless you are earmarked to be a recluse or a monk at best. The fact a high school graduate can get into college without either of these facilities is beyond sad and borderline criminal.

Secondly we have to take that marvelous proclivity we have towards a particular discipline and nurture it, not put it down. We all have it and for most it remains untapped. Want to make this a better United States and a better world? Find people’s strengths and then the education to make them blossom. Think outside of the box on everything from farming to science and yes even a thing called hospice. Have that wonderful desire to not only excel but to really make things better. That thing called innovation starts with WHY? and then Why Not? It is that simple. Well, almost.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids;

The US spends around $11,000 per student educating them. $6500 of that is spent on instruction itself. The lowest per state is $7500 in Idaho and the highest is New Jersey with $18,000

The rates are all over the map but it seems that 25% of incoming freshmen is a good number when looking a remedial courses necessary to take college courses.

It is estimated that 70% of parents are involved in their children’s schooling via PTO meetings, Back to School nights etc. 65% of parents polled said they should be doing a lot more to further their child’s education.

Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed. This can be in art,thought, science or industry
Innovation generally refers to changing or creating more effective processes, products and ideas,

I could have talked of uniforms. discipline,(vis a vis a learning environment) responsibility etc. but I wanted to keep it simple.

Thinking Out Loud…

I had an interesting phone call from a good friend who asked me what I thought of the shootings in Roseburg,Oregon. He said Ted’s Head was always thinking and he knew I would have an answer to the problem. Now either he was being patronizing or desperate to think I could solve one of our nation’s most intrinsic enigmas.

Just defining it is complex. We have this constitution that says we have the right to bear arms. Fair enough. There is also a clause that is not an amendment but a basic tenet that says we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.Stress that life part.  Which right is superior? I don’t have enough brainpower to figure that out. Now I can consult my buddies and see which way the wind is blowing and find the issue divided even Steven. Probably shows my total lack of standards in picking friends.

But this one really is a bitch because for one it probably will never be solved, at least not in our lifetime. We want to have registration of guns and owners as well as background checks. This would lead to a national database that would be dependent on factual input and local adherence. Please note there are over 300 million guns in our country.

Now the VA wants to have a file that would put the records of all armed forces present and past into some jumbo computer. That hasn’t worked out very well. Homeland Security wanted to put together an identification system for guest workers.Ditto. The FBI spent over $500 million on a super computer program that never saw the light of day. I think you get the picture.

Maybe we can look at the problem from a mental health point of view. Let’s assume that 10% of Americans have some sort of mental illness at any given point in time. It could range from common depression to serious schizophrenic or bipolar debilitation. That is 35 million people give or take. We know right now that only 10-15% of that populace seek help even though it is proven that the cure rate or at least management of symptoms surpasses 90%. However our facilities and practitioners are taxed to the limit. What if we introduced another 20% into treatment That would be piling on to the tune of 7 million people. Forget about cost we just don’t have the docs and facilities to even make a dent.

This is where my eternal optimism runs headlong into my ever present pragmatism. What it really comes down to is by using percentages we tend to overlook the real numbers behind some serious problems and their ultimate solution. Take healthcare. The reality of actual numbers is shrouded in percentages. I can tell you that caring for ourselves has risen from 6% of GDP twenty years ago to almost 20% today. To most that is a vague number. What if I tell you that translates into $3TRILLION in expenditures per annum. Which number gets your attention?

Now the national poverty rate is around 8%. That is 45 million people in this great land of ours. Childhood poverty for those under 18 has fallen from 21.8% to 19.9 % Hooray! That means we only have 14.7 million kids that are at best destitute. Those living in severe poverty (less than $10,000 annual income for a family of four) are only 6% of the population. That my friends is 20 million people.

Now maybe you just put this down and have said no more this week big guy. I don’t blame you. I am not trying to have an intervention for you or me. Some will say that’s life and that is their prerogative. Some will wring their hands and say dear me the sky is falling. Me? I guess I am going to go on thinking and trying to figure out a way to make things better.

I have been looking at apps that can monitor our net worth and body worth on this index or that.Not many for solving poverty. I have seen we want to go to Mars while we can’t get Congress to authorize a highway bill. We have geniuses that can figure out how to bypass emission monitoring equipment but no one has figured out how to make an asphalt that doesn’t crumble in the winter. We have new materials that make airplanes more lightweight and stronger than steel but we can’t figure out how to eliminate rust and deterioration on our bridges and highways.

I continue to be fascinated how I and the rest of us focus on the petty or superfluous while we all kick the can down the road. I am not the Donald screaming and ranting how the rest of the world is putting us to shame. I happen to think we are a fabulous country that just has its priorities screwed up. We have a hard time thinking long term because our leaders both in Washington and the board rooms of America are short sighted. There is very little difference whether you are looking at the next elections or the next quarterly financials. Small minds think in short intervals. The big picture gets lost.

I am working on a project to figure out a way to clean up a small section of the Cherry Creek here in Denver. Is is a glorious oasis in the middle of a burgeoning spate of skyscrapers and apartment complexes. I have met the most wonderful people both inside and outside of government. I have gotten response where I never thought possible. It’s a little piece but I am passionate about it. Kind of feels good deep down. Not for me but knowing you can make a difference. Hope you didn’t mind my thinking out loud. Try it. It is good for the soul.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Stewardship is an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources. The concepts of stewardship can be applied to the environment and nature,economics, health, property, information,theology, etc. Are we any good?

Right now there are 1 1/2 million apps available to mobiles phone users.
There are almost one hundred computer games that have sold more than one million copies. Time wasted or well used?

50% of the world’s population has neither made nor received a phone call in their lives.
The cost to go to Mars by 2025 has been estimated at up to $500 billion dollars.You know that will go up.

In America, there are approximately 300 million firearms possessed by civilians, and 897,000 carried by police.
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms reports that about 5.5 million new firearms were manufactured in America in 2010. 95% of these were for the U.S. market.
Close to 33,000 Americans were victims of gun-related deaths in 2011 and an average of 268 citizens are shot every day.

If you were unaware or unmoved by the picture of the three year old refugee boy washed up dead on a beach then maybe you should not read on. I am just one of millions if not billions who saw it and the madness ripped at my soul. Has this so called civilization we live in come this far or this low that we have to be uber shocked to sit up and take notice?

Our first reaction is to explain it away. If Assad hadn’t unleashed his fury on his populace they never would have come and everything would have been hunky dory. Same for Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras and India I guess. The Donald says the world is transactional and he may be right. It comes to down to pluses and minuses and net effects to deem whether something is worthy of our consideration. Sorry for being emotional but I have a little more soul than that. But let me try another track.

As I put on my detached professorial hat, the current crisis is not really such but rather a recurring theme of history. For millennia people have been moving from one place to another. Incredibly for the most part the motivation has been the same…to find a better life. Now they may beset by a myriad of factors from hunger, thirst, poverty, political oppression, physical danger et alia but the grass somehow has to be greener somewhere else.

Forget about Mesopotamia to Africa and the land bridge from Asia to North America,we have a wonderful example of wanderlust in our young nation. Pre 1820 there were 11.3 million immigrants to the New World. Incredibly 8.7 million were slaves which can only be considered forced migration. But the others were well to do. They had the wherewithal and the gumption to set out on a rather arduous journey to seek their fortune. By definition they were some of the youngest and brightest and they put their business plan into play.

As time went on they needed manpower for their enterprise and that had to go beyond slaves and indentured servants. Post 1820 it turned to a more muscular if shall we say a less educated group. The Chinese to Left Coast and the Italians, Irish et al to the East Coast. They were harassed and derided but were put to use as cogs in this economic engine that the Industrial Age was fueling non stop. They didn’t speak the language and they hung out together in ghettos of a sort (sound familiar?) but that was okay. Just keep working and mind your manners. It wasn’t until 1920 that we started to put the brakes on.

Even without the horror of war the same is true today. Over 350 million Chinese have made the transition from a rural economy to an urban one. Why? The guys in the sticks make less than $1000 a year. Go beyond that and the young and restless of Italy, Russia, Spain and Portugal want to call Berlin, London and Copenhagen home. The end result is that the deserted countries now have an aging population that doesn’t pay taxes but now lives off the dole. Fascinating stuff.

This gets enormously complex if you don’t pause and look at the possible scenarios and pitfalls. The obvious is the need for social services from everything to schooling to medical help. The oil fields of the Dakotas bring workers and families that overwhelm the local governments. Very much akin to the Gold Rush days, they have to cast a wary eye as to when the gravy train stops running and $45 oil takes its toll.

Now you can say no more and good for you. I find it comical that we even consider sending 11 million illegals back. This is not a political statement but one of fact. Who would clean the houses,cut the lawns, bus the tables, mind the children if that happened? Well, TTG they are taking jobs away from us good old boys. I guess that is why 25% of the current crops are lying rotten in the fields from California to Georgia because they can’t find workers to pick them. They are paying $18 an hour with meals and housing with no takers. I drive down Colorado Boulevard and see sign after sign asking for help at anywhere from $9-15 per hour.

Immigration is good for any country. Several have actually seen a reverse migration. Mexico has a net inflow of people coming back. The economy and opportunity is on the rise. It is in the older countries of Europe that these people should be welcomed with open arms because they will be reinfused with youth and talent that is sorely needed. There are doctors, engineers and architects in that group that should be regarded for their talents rather than their funny language.

It is mind boggling that Germany has set goals of hundreds of thousands of immigrants while France and GB will graciously accept 20,000…over five years. I don’t know about you but I watched the good people of Munich applause and warmly welcome train loads and a bit of pride welled up in me that they are part of our developed world. Someone said they were just trying to make up for WWII. Well good for them. The Poles and Hungarians seem to have a short memory.

Maybe I am on a bit of a soapbox. Sorry for that. It’s just another one of those things that we have to put more than dollars into the equation. I think of my grandmother and her sister who walked down a lane in the town of Boyle to make their way to Cork and the unknown of the States at the age of 14 and 16. It took guts and some open arms. I am glad I am part of a country that had the largesse. I wonder what would happen if that little boy had washed up on the beach on Long Island or Santa Monica if we might give a different thought? Immigration and striving for something better is a part of life. I am not so smug that I can say let someone else do their part. I think we have to do ours.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids;

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus . The inscription on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Take a moment to read it.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Unless you were born in the Levant or the heart of Africa, depending on your version of history, all of us from Native Americans to European were immigrants at one time.

As our mountain journey came to a close I took US 6 towards the farmer’s market in Edwards,CO. I had to  get some tomatoes and sweet Olathe corn for dinner Saturday night. This old time meandering highway maps out roughly parallel to the Eagle River. On the south side the jagged cliffs soar beautifully and provide a great launch pad for hang gliders.

On a scale of one to ten on the insanity index, those who want to tempt fate as Icarus once did, push the needle just a skosh over nine. For the uninitiated you lash your body to this contraption of an aluminum frame with stretched nylon covering every lift surface you can find. You then take off on a dead run over, you guessed it, a precipice that may be a couple of thousand  feet or more above mother earth below.

Now assuming you have the tilt angle correct and you don’t trip on your dash then you are soon soaring like an eagle. You make great swooping turns as you seek to catch updrafts that may hold you aloft and extend your ride. That was the easy part. Now you have to push the stanchions this way and that to not only turn but to effect a landing on something approximating the size of a large postage stamp. Then you one, two or three point land to the applause and huzzahs of your friends. Like a car race I think everyone just comes to see if you are going to go splat on a large rock. C’est la vie.

Pulling over to the side of the road I watched several flights and most if not all the aviators were very good at their craft. I had just read a book by Malcolm Gladwell and one of his chapters dwelt on how even the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry. In specific he spoke of the Challenger disaster that met its fate because of a faulty “O” ring. Point being that if it was not a bad seal, it very well could have been something else. There are a gazillion parts on a space shuttle. The were quadruple backup systems at Three Mile Island. We seem to have to have this obsession with getting everything perfect when in the long run….Shit Happens.

Think about our lives from so many vantage points. Take medicine. We are now in an age where we test everything about our bodies. We are paranoid about what goes in and yes that which comes out. There has to be a reason for everything because God knows no one just gets sick and even worse it could not be possible that someone just died of natural causes. We have to find a culprit and root him out forever. Better yet we have to put safety nets in every part of our lives to ward off the evil invaders. Seat belts, helmets, air bags and a pill for this or that has caused us to be just spectators to this thing called life.

This morning there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about procrastination. The topic has intrigued me for years from both a personal and intellectual viewpoint. Why do people put things off? Of course we might have other things to do but there is a more satanic reason we don’t act upon our instincts. We hem and haw and throw up every roadblock possible. When it comes right down to it, we don’t want to be wrong and ergo embarrassed.

It comes back to that little marvel that creeps into our life known as self esteem. Forget how we look to ourselves. It is how we look to our fellow man and woman that matters. If it was a passing moment that would be fine but people will tie themselves in knots fretting about this or that and imagining the repercussions and incredible failures that might result. So they do absolutely nothing. The longer they wait the worse it gets. That wall of doubt soon morphs into a mountainside that no one is going to get you to jump off.

The saddest part is that this turns into a solitary confinement that becomes a lot worse than Supermax. You pace your little cell and only can wonder what if? You pass on opportunity and circumvent relationships and maybe love itself. Oh yeah, you are close to making decision. I just have to do a little more research. I will wait until next year because it just doesn’t feel right at this very moment. And on and on and on.

Our world only exacerbates this. We have left ourselves to be ruled by experts. Economists tell us what is going to happen this year and next. In sports we have pros to cure our swings and our psyche. Quants and algorithms rule the markets. Want to buy something? We have to check Consumers Reports and a thousand websites to make sure we are buying the absolute best products at the cheapest price imaginable.

Then there are our friends and enemies. Each one knows everything. That’s not a bad bottle of wine but I am going to tell you about a truly great one. Oh, you went to Rome and didn’t see the Church of St Catastrophina? Well you really missed out and are worthless. I just took a lesson from Joe Gasotz and he has found the answer to great golf. Only $300 an hour and worth every penny.

Now you may get everything right by following twenty nine steps before action. But do you have any idea how much fun you missed out on in the meantime? There is a certain thrill and yes fear about going into the unknown but it is like going down a double black ski run and then looking back up from the bottom and saying.”Hey, I did that.” Me? I am going to jump off that cliff on my hang glider. I will see you at the bottom…I hope.

As Always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

In sociology and psychology, self-esteem reflects a person’s overall subjective emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs (for example, “I am competent”, “I am worthy”) and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame
“Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason. Traumas or bad experiences can trigger a fear response within us that is hard to quell. Yet exposing ourselves to our personal demons is the best way to move past them.” Psychology Today

Rate Of Death in sports per 100,000 population

Base Jumping 43. 17
Swimming 1.77
Cycling 1.08
Skydiving .99
Hang Gliding . 86
Running .79
Table Tennis .40
Skiing .06

Kathy and I are house/dog sitting for some wonderful old friends here in Eagle, Colorado. Fleury, their wonder dog, is a16 year old Jack Russell that more often than not is lot more lively than us. Their home is right on the Eagle River and the word idyllic doesn’t do justice to the setting.

We need our water fix from time to time and if you sit on the patio a distant seashore back east or south doesn’t really seem too far away. My buddy Hawley used to say camping out for him was the Ramada Inn in Frisco just down the road. This is the amped up version.

You start to get why so many people crave the simple life. There is a village pathway in town. You see folks of all manner of economics just walking or riding a bike at a leisurely speed. They wave and say hello and it is not perfunctory but heartfelt. Eagle has been jazzed up and gotten a new face over the years but it has retained a charm and panache that we all knew when we moved to this glorious valley many years ago.

Back then Vail was a dopey mountain town where there was plenty of money but nobody really cared to show it off. Eagle is 30 miles from there in oh so many ways. Attitude hasn’t gotten this far west and one can only hope. There is an ornate playground that was crafted by the locals and my 7-11 year old granddaughters played there for almost two hours on Saturday while Padge read a book nearby. There were no IPhones or IPads but just little ones fabricating their own games and mysterious places.

As you sit outside you can see the sun start to stir on a mountain top nearby. It hits up high first and then snakes down the slope as that magnificent orb rises higher in the sky. It has done that every day for millennia and yet the process is still a sight to see. There is a nearby peak that is brick red just off the top. My geologist son says that was part of a shoreline many millennia ago as the Ice Age began to give way to verdant valleys. The waters ate their way through the granite century after century to come down to the floor a thousand feet below and ergo our wonderful stream. Talk about feeling insignificant.

There is an incredible sense of balance. Winter snows lay a snowpack for six months that spawn the rivulets and tributaries. The Eagle feeds into the Colorado and graces the states along its path with life giving aqua. The Western Slope to Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California and then if there is any left to Mexico. Each should take their allotment but the Imperial Valley screams and fights for more. Arizona has to grow cotton.Somewhere along the line someone is going to get screwed for the sake of the majority. Just doesn’t seem fair somehow.

The Eagle is renowned for its fishing. You see anglers plying their craft in waders with creel in hand hoping to bag the big one. But fame is fleeting as catch and release is the rule of the day. You then watch an eagle or red hawk circle looking for a late lunch or early dinner. Birds and bugs of all sorts abound and they are not pests but neighbors to respect. We all have our place in this chain.

The whole place is like a big leather easy chair. You squirm and fidget to find just the right spot or angle. When you get it just right you sit down with a good book or a glass of red and just veg. We had a beer at a place called the Dusty Boot on Saturday. We sat out on the deck where the rule on footwear was flip flops only. The chalk board said shots of Irish Whiskey were three dollars. Who knows what the brand was but it was a little too early to start. Some didn’t exhibit such patience.

They had a wine and mushroom festival last weekend. No, not the shrooms you are thinking of. A Baby Boomer with braided grey hair was the impresario. He laid out a blue tarp and every one displayed their best chanterelles. Over the years ball caps have replaced Stetsons but the Hispanics still wear straw. Everyone is welcome and part of the community. Any other place this would have seemed very strange and retro. Here it was modus operandi.

Now everyday we are here you seem to slow down just a bit more. Some of you might say this is LaLa and not real. On the other hand one is forced to wonder if this isn’t more real than any place on earth? The melodrama of the stock market is miles away and not just geographically. I peruse the Denver Post in a matter of moments. Mayhem on a bullet train in France. A trooper in Louisiana gunned down by a drunk he was trying to help. Pardon me while I switch over to the Vail Daily.

I have taken reams of notes on all sorts of topics. I hope I can impart some of those thoughts to you in future Ted’s Heads. They are in there. I just hope I can do them justice. It’s just good to come out of the fray and do some fun thinking. I hope this has caused you to do some too.

As Always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Eagle County encompasses some 1900 square miles. The population is around 50,000. The US Government and I guess that means us owns about 80% of all the property. It is split into national forests and BLM(Bureau of Land Management) property.
The town of Eagle is the county seat and home to 6500 people.
Vail is home to around 5300 people.

It is also the third largest ski area in the United States. It opened in 1962 and the town was incorporated in 1966. Vail Mountain rises from 8,120 feet to 11,570 feet, giving a vertical height of 3,450 feet. It has a 5,289 acres skiable area, 33 ski lifts, 193 marked skiing trails on three faces: the front side, the back bowls, and Blue Sky Basin. If you are from the East don’t ever ski there because you will never go back to the blue ice of Vermont.

Hummingbirds….They are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their beating wings which flap at high frequencies audible to humans. They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, typically around 50 times per second, allowing them also to fly at speeds exceeding 35 mph backwards.

The golf ball flies farther at high altitudes: The air is less dense, so there is less friction to slow the orb’s forward motion. The figure 10% is used as a differential although either they are mistaken or I am getting older.