Connecting the Dots

Recently, I discovered one of the benefits of growing old...beyond mere longevity. Age has forced me to think more intensely. In the past year, I have traveled to Scotland to research the Scottish independence movement and then traveled to Myanmar/Burma to study the human rights efforts in that country. I loved the trip to Scotland. It was nice to return to where I did post-graduate studies 45-years ago, however the trip to Myanmar changed my life. I am a different person than I was before spending a month in Myanmar.

When I returned to the States, I had a routine appointment with my cardiologist, Dr. Marchand. My heart issues are fine, but I asked him why I was so driven. He paused for a moment and then said, "You have seen the light."

In the past four months, I have spent a great deal of time writing about seeing the light and attempting to flesh out the next question. Why? Why have I seen the light? In the process, I have looked back on 7-decades of events in my life. Steve Jobs calls these events, dots. I have danced with death a couple times, in which I learned that I was finite. I have become more left of center than I was even back in the 60s during the civil rights movement. I think about the legacy that I will leave the world. I want to use my experiences in my life to help those who are younger to enjoy life. And the list goes on....

Then it dawned on me. That is precisely what Steve Jobs said was the reason for my seeing the light...I was connecting the dots. This is part of his commencement speech at Stanford.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Who I am today is based upon having the wondrous vantage point of connecting many dots over the years. The connecting of those dots as I look back reveals a wondrous revelation of seeing the light...a light like I never imagined as I was experiencing the dots. As the events or dots occur, that is not the time that one can see the meaning of the dots. Nevertheless, hindsight is.

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12/12/18

Captain Ahab and His Incarnation In Donald the Dumb

12/10/18

The Magnificent Seven… My Dream Team

12/07/18

Would You Like Some Vintage Wine? I Would!

12/05/18

What’s It Like Being a Neanderthal? Most of Us Have Some Neanderthal DNA

12/03/18

From Mud To Macadam

11/30/18

I Celebrate Two Thanksgiving Days… And This Is Why

11/22/18

"Look at Me I Am Old but I’m Happy"

11/14/18

Building a Log Cabin You Are Really Smart; I’ll Tell My Brother

11/12/18

On Land and Sea We Are All Greeks

11/05/18

Lack of Leadership In Turbulent Times

11/02/18

Serendipitous Moments in My Life And They Are Haunting Me

10/31/18

Happy Birthday to My Ginger Pooh Who is Two

10/29/18

Donald the Dumb Should Have Taken Art History

10/26/18

Keep Calm And Things Seem to Work Out

10/24/18

On Making Your Mark And Leaving It

10/22/18

The Relevance of Religion In the World

10/15/18

Sexism in Society Especially in Washington

10/05/18

Rhythm of My Heart Here and Abroad

10/03/18

“Holy Mackerel” Thus Spoke Ginger

10/01/18

Another Return to Casablanca To Understand the Present

09/28/18

Teaching Students And Learning as a Teacher

09/24/18

A Noble Person… Meets Another Noble Person

09/17/18

Hand of a Little Child… Ti Ti

09/12/18

Admiral McRaven and St. Francis Two Similar Minds

08/29/18

A Strange Third Dance.... Indeed.

08/24/18

Ginger Is the Love of My Life As Seen in Music That I Love

08/20/18

What Goes Around Comes Around…Again and Again

08/17/18

Deep State Bob Woodward and Me

08/15/18

Be a Dreamer.... And Never Quit Dreaming.

08/10/18

Snow, the Virtuoso Träumerei and The Great Gate of Kiev

08/06/18

It Is In Giving That We Get Being Like Bobby

08/03/18

The Ripple Effect… “…Can Sweep Down the Mightiest Walls.”

07/23/18

Eppie… Then and Now

07/20/18

The Weaker Sex Will Soon Be the Dominant Sex

07/11/18

If I Fail… I Will While Daring Greatly

07/06/18

It Is a Matter of Either / Or… Lady Liberty or Donald the Dumb, Despicable, and Dishonest.

07/04/18

Possible Explanations of Death A Personal Apocalypse

06/29/18

Teach Your Children Well Lasko and Trump They are Coming To Get You….

06/22/18

Ti Ti, Snow, and Fatty Having Fun Without PaPa Al

06/20/18

Clarity About Dancing Being Arthur Murray in the Real World

06/11/18

The House of Fear And the Orange Pips

06/08/18

The Goddess Ganga The Transcendence of Reality

06/06/18

Ti Ti and Her Family My Assistants in Myanmar

05/28/18

Who Are Your Mentors? Here Are Mine

05/21/18

Ten Years and Counting What a Difference a Dance Makes

05/18/18

758 Horns of a Dilemma The House of Cards

05/16/18

Forrester and Jamal You and I

05/11/18

Projection Lock Him Up

05/07/18

Moh Moh, Bobby, and Me…. All Dreamers

04/30/18

A Wrinkle in Time Thinking Outside the Box

04/25/18

Learning When You Thought You Knew… All There Was to Know

04/18/18

Dear PaPa Al..... Dear Ti Ti

04/16/18

Frederick Douglass A Better Man Than I

04/13/18

Bobby’s Suggestion About My Problems… A School in Taunggyi, Myanmar

04/06/18

Sherlock Holmes In Washington While We Drank Ginger Grog

04/04/18

Easter Island In the Past and Future

04/02/18

My Follow-Up… To My Email To Ti Ti

03/19/18

Marner and Eppie Me and the Girls

03/16/18

I Want to Have My Last Lecture at Harvard On March 9, 2043

03/09/18

The Question Is… How Will You Be Remembered?

02/26/18

An Age of Revolution If We But Know What To Do With It

02/16/18

My Heart Issues Both Hearts

02/14/18

Having a Purpose Carpe Diem

02/12/18

The Widow’s Mite And the Rich Donald the Dumb

02/09/18

The Water Horse of Loch Ness And Our Water Horses of Life

02/07/18

The Art of Asking Questions… About Which You Know the Answers

02/05/18

A Shopping Spree With My Three Granddaughters

02/02/18

Moh Moh, Tin Tin, and Me We Are the Incarnations of Bobby

01/31/18

Dressed to Kill Ginger and I Watched Another Sherlock Holmes Mystery

01/29/18

I Failed For the Time Being

01/26/18

What I Learned In High School Applies To This Moment In Time

01/24/18

Lesson Learned About Dreaming I Learned from Bobby

01/22/18

We Are Family Versus Racism

01/19/18

Bobby the Runt Turned into Bobby the Leader

01/17/18

There Are Moments in Teaching... That Are Rewarding

01/15/18

The Best Week of My Life… Occurred While I Was in Burma

01/12/18

Terror by Night The Third of our Date and Dinner

01/08/18

My Thoughts about the Meaning of Life My Perspective from My Twilight Years

01/05/18

Ginger's World... Blends with My World

01/03/18

Another Breakfast with My Shrink Dealing with Dreaming

01/01/18

America As Bobby, Moh Moh, and the Jazz Singer See It

12/25/17

The Scarlet Claw A Date Night Movie

12/18/17

Dreaming Dreams that Never Were... Asking Why Not.

12/15/17

Doing the Dance... Fathoming the Unfathomable

12/11/17

Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain While Plowing

12/08/17

Ginger's World... Blends with My World

12/06/17

Confucius Said... But We Haven’t Listened

12/04/17

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock... Remember the Past or Repeat It.

11/29/17

The Big Fib: "I'm, like, a really smart person."

11/27/17

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address... Then and Now

11/20/17

The Haunting of the Edmund Fitzgerald Doomed Before Setting Sail

11/17/17

The Many Michelangelo Painters of the Cave The Renaissance of the Paleolithic Period

11/13/17

The Tattoo of My Pooh and Me Ginger and Don Quixote

11/10/17

The Reason Behind... Everything

11/08/17

The Balfour Declaration One Explanation for the Mess in the Middle East

11/01/17

Another Fake News Item War of the Worlds

10/30/17

Fake News... Of the Italian Renaissance

10/25/17

Live in the Moment... Plan for the Future

10/20/17

What I Owe Ashley and Michael Wall Removal

10/11/17

Ginger and Santayana Remember the Past

10/09/17

Lawrence of Arabia One of My Mentors

10/06/17

Ti Ti A Reason for Being

10/02/17

Ginger and I Promises To Keep and Miles To Go Before We Sleep

09/29/17

Ginger AKA Longshanks

09/27/17

Mr. Lee and Mr. Rotteveel Two Stories: About When I Was Young and When I Am Old

09/22/17

The Double-Axe A Symbol of My Identity

09/15/17

I’m On the Road Again But Why?

09/08/17

The Hollow Man Who Wears Long Ties

09/04/17

When Dreams Aren’t Realized What Should You Do?

09/01/17

Ginger And the Issue of Kissing

08/30/17

Minnows or Manhood Or Scent of a Woman....

08/28/17

Akhenaten... My Mentor

08/25/17

Get Educated— Travel

08/23/17

Essay with No Words But Look At My Eyes

08/21/17

“Better Angels of Our Nature” In America, Mexico, and Burma

08/19/17

Clarence Page and Donald the Dumb— The President of Trump University

08/18/17

Draining the Swamp... And Adding to the Swamp

08/14/17

To Attach or Not to Attach That Is the Question

08/11/17

Ti Ti and I A Most Haunting Relationship

08/04/17

Macbeth... Guilt Spills Itself for Fear of Being Spilt

08/02/17

The Pentagon Papers... Then and Now

07/31/17

Ginger And Her Unconditional Love

07/28/17

USS Indianapolis and Connecting the Dots Quint, Jack, and Owen

07/26/17

America First Has Been Replaced... With Me First

07/24/17

Just Another Lie Of the Liar-In-Chief

07/21/17

Oppie The Scientist and the Philosopher

07/17/17

Just Drop Me Off And Ginger’s Toy Dog

07/14/17

Rage, Rage... Against the Pissing Pug

07/10/17

Henry II and Thomas Becket Then and Now

07/07/17

What Did I Learn... From Vinegar Joe

07/05/17

I Pledge Allegiance To Donald the Dumb

07/03/17

Impeachment of Trump And the Tower of Babel

06/30/17

Sexism in the World Why?

06/28/17

Donald the Dumb’s Dilemma Falling from Great Heights

06/21/17

The Benefit of Failed Dreams The Dalai Lama’s Oxymoron

06/19/17

Teaching Donald the Dumb There Is No Happiness Where There Is No Wisdom

06/16/17

The Ides of June And Religious Ties

06/14/17

“Grace Under Pressure” The Way to be a Leader

06/12/17

First and Last Witch Hunt... The Work of the Village Idiots

06/09/17

Learning, the Unquenchable Drive Travel and Learn

06/07/17

What Were You Doing on D-Day? Being What You Might Have Been

06/05/17

Breaking News from Ginger About Trump Colluding with the Russians and Putin

06/02/17

HMS Terror, HMS Erebus, Global Warming… Or Nonsense from Those Godless Chinese Communists

05/26/17

The Hauntings of Hachikō and Bobby… And the Haunting of My Gingers

05/24/17

Bridge Builder or Wall Builder A Clear Choice for Donald the Dumb

05/22/17

Ginger’s Predecessors And My Domesticated Carnivore

05/19/17

Class, Easter Ham, and Kayaking... The Morphing of My World

05/15/17

Three Blind Mice… And Bloody Mary

05/08/17

Do Not Going Gently Into That Good Night I Will Rage

05/05/17

Brexit vs Scoxit The Death Blow to the British Empire

05/01/17

To Become… What You Might Have Been

04/28/17

Getting It Together… An Avenue to Acquiring Dreams

04/26/17

Ginger’s World… Donald the Dumb’s Cave

04/24/17

Campbell’s Cooking Class Teaches More Than Cooking

04/21/17

The Meaning of Life It Is All About Fighting the Good Fight for Others

04/19/17

Life Is a Bowl of Cherries Or the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

04/14/17

This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef... And Ginger Devoured the Little Piggy’s Ear

04/10/17

Elephant in the Room Trump's Mental State

04/07/17

The Amazing Process Called Learning Thinking Outside the Box

04/05/17

Pride Before Fall Learnings from History

04/03/17

Chick Magnet And the Hauntings

03/31/17

Approval Ratings For Someone Who is Insecure

03/29/17

The Hauntings About Bobby and the Gingers

03/27/17

Emperor's Clothes The Donald Isn't Invisible

03/24/17

A Tweet to God... A Tweet from James Baldwin

03/20/17

Crowd Size Size Isn't Critical, But the Truth Is

03/15/17

On Riding to Samara Then and Now....

03/10/17

Invictus Thank You, Mrs. Davis

03/06/17

A Dog's Purpose The Person's Purpose

03/03/17

What Donald the Dumb is Missing in Life? Eppie

03/01/17

P.T. Barnum Has Returned to Life What Goes Around, Comes Around

02/27/17

Robert the Bruce I'll Drink to Him!

02/17/17

Thus Spoke Dr. Marchand... And Ginger

02/15/17

Ginger, Socks, and Poe Finding Lenore....

02/13/17

Narcissus and the Donald "I Love Me...."

02/10/17

Adams and Jefferson An Ethical Battle

02/08/17

Lambs Eat Ivy And Ginger Eats Lamb Ears

02/06/17

Icarus and the Donald Warning About Flying Too High

02/03/17

The Meaning of Ginger The Winter Solstice

02/01/17

Winfield Scott And Where I Live

01/25/17

How Will I Live to My 100th Birthday? Answer: Ikigai

01/20/17

The Value of Travel: Education

01/13/17

We Don't Have a Democracy... Yet Either

01/06/17

A Lesson of Life Learned from a Cockroach

01/04/17

Ginger, the Dances, and the Lady It Is All About Determination

01/02/17

Step Beyond the Impossible Wall Learning from the Mongols

12/28/16

The Great Value of the Philosophers' Stone... To Me

12/21/16

Accomplishing Things in Life... Even Long Shots

12/16/16

Teach Your Children, Part 2 But When?

12/12/16

Mentor Tell You Something About You The Value of Post-it Notes

12/09/16

Only Those Who Dare to Fail... Can Achieve

12/05/16

Deplorable... Defining the Definition

11/25/16

Chimps or Bonobos From Whence Did You Evolve?

11/21/16

Roll Me Up I Am Free to be Me at 73

11/18/16

The Lady, Bobby, and Bagan Triangulation Process

11/14/16

Teach Your Children... To Dream

10/28/16

Moby Dick Found But Not in a Book

10/19/16

Resurrecting Dashed Dreams By Continuing to Dream

10/17/16

Himmler and His Quest for the Holy Grail Remember the Past

10/05/16

I Challenge the Trim Trump To Test His Stamina Against Mine

10/03/16

The Fighting Téméraire Explained My Nostalgia to Me

09/21/16

Why Do I Care? More to the Point, Why Doesn't Everyone Care?

09/16/16

The Meltdown of the Donald As America Watches

09/12/16

Moh Moh Spoke And She Sounded Like Don Quixote

09/09/16

Return to Myanmar Dream Big

09/02/16

Trying and Failing... Is Better than Failing without Trying

08/26/16

Listening to My Mentors And Dreaming Impossible Dreams

08/19/16

The Terrorism Trifecta Three More Dances with Death

08/12/16

Bobby Kennedy Still Reaches Out to Us.

07/29/16

The Queen's Haunting... Bohemian Rhapsody

07/27/16

My Love Letters They Must Be Written

07/22/16

We Shall Overcome A Belief Amid Darkness

07/18/16

Prediction of Clinton's Running Mate And Her Running Mate Is....

07/08/16

Last Words Or Don Quixote's Joists with Windmills

07/04/16

Bloody Hands and No Backbone What a Legacy

06/20/16

My Sherpa Statue Spoke A Valuable Time Spent Listening

06/17/16

The 5-Things Test Seeing Yourself as Others See You

06/15/16

The Angel Spoke... And I Listened.

06/10/16

The Thinkers Three Jack, Owen, and Me

06/06/16

The Donald The Relationship Between Ignorance and Knowledge

05/20/16

Mr. Turner The Dualism of Feelings

05/06/16

Morphing of the Flu with Polio A Strange Juxtaposition

04/29/16

I am Don Quixote But I Am Not from La Mancha

04/15/16

Maude Adams Found Somewhere in Time

04/13/16

In My Life I'll Never Lose Affection for People and Things

04/11/16

Don Quixote and Albert Einstein The Two Dreamers

04/04/16

Learning from My Mentor A Knight-Errant On His Deathbed

03/28/16

On Seeing the Light Chuck, Paul, and Me

03/04/16

Two Roads in the Wood Choose Wisely

02/26/16

Grave or No Grave That is the Question

02/22/16

Best of Times, Worst of Times It Is Your Choice; Choose Wisely

02/19/16

Buddha's Strange Parable... Which We Need to Understand

02/15/16

The Value of Dreaming About My List of Dulcineas

02/12/16

Another Dancer David Hume

02/01/16

Revitalizing My Brain After Winding Up in ICU

01/25/16

"I'm Dying, and I'm Having Fun." Randy Pausch is Correct

01/15/16

The Little Match Girl And The Golden Statue

01/11/16

The Very Strange Year of 2008 A Year to Remember

01/08/16

The Gift of an Angel It is More About My Feelings

01/06/16

Pathétique Moving Music

12/16/15

Doing the Dance Again How to Address Both New Dances

12/11/15

I Decided to Support the Emperor Donald Starting with His Red Tie

12/07/15

I Know Who I Am... And Have Found Two People Who Understand Me

12/04/15

Take Your Passion and Make It Happen Flashdance Follow-up

11/27/15

Responses to Paris Both Are Vital

11/25/15

What a Feeling And It Is a Great Feeling

11/20/15

Want to See What I'm Wearing for Halloween? A Profound Question

11/16/15

The Campbell Cookie Jar The Tie In Between the Past and the Present

10/28/15

Doubling Down... To Make Dreams Come True

10/19/15

The Old Pine Table An Object of Renewal and Rebirth

10/14/15

It's Confession Time... And It Isn't Sunday

10/09/15

The Mahogany Bench A Place for Dreaming....

10/07/15

The Little Wooden Box An Updated Pandora's Box

09/30/15

A Great Dancer with Death A Sobering Experience

09/21/15

Putting the Pieces Together The Joy of Coming of Age

09/18/15

The Tulip Pitcher A Picture of Springtime

09/16/15

Songs Can Make the World Go Around... Peacefully.

09/11/15

The Felt Picture A Picture of Hopefulness

09/09/15

A Second Look at Life Toward the End of Life

09/07/15

The Japanese Surrendered... But Why?

09/02/15

From Whence Does the Spark Come? The Creative Act of Pondering

08/24/15

The Value of Pain Or How to Retrieve the Torpedo

08/21/15

Discovery of Terracotta Warriors... And Nessie

08/14/15

A Man with a Mission... Sinking a German U-boat

08/12/15

Intelligent Life on Other Planets Is there anyone there; does anyone care out there?

08/10/15

Riders on the Streetcar Named Desire: Elizabeth and Rosa

08/03/15

The Pied Piper of Hamelin A Strange Tale

07/31/15

What Matisse Taught Me Years Ago, Which I Finally Fully Understand

07/10/15

Alan Seeger And His Dance with Death

07/04/15

What I Learned About Life... From Facing Down the Dragon

06/29/15

Wading Through the Water of Life Advice by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

06/24/15

Career Opportunity... Being a Gladiator

06/19/15

The Benefit of Problems Or the Only Means to Success

06/08/15

Cancer and Crabs Strange History that They Both Share

06/05/15

Milky Way and Andromeda's Dance with Death Parallels Our Dances with Death

06/03/15

Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut's Dance with Death

06/01/15

Dancing with Death Allows You to Live

05/22/15

It Has Been Seven Years Since I Fell... And Cracked My Head

05/18/15

The Puzzle of Life Solved By... Jack and Owen

05/15/15

Steve Jobs and Charles Dickens How to Avoid the Ghosts

05/08/15

It is a Choice between Excitement and Desperation. Choose Wisely

05/04/15

Nepal Then And Now

05/03/15

"We Get Old Too Soon... And Wise Too Late"

04/27/15

Booth Died 150 Years Ago Today How Has America Changed?

04/26/15

Fertilizing Daffodils But in the Meantime....

04/24/15

How Do We Learn? The Lessons in Learning

04/13/15

Two Crazy Captains Chasing Moby Dick Then and Now

04/03/15

Ode to Joy In the Midst of Pain

03/27/15

Lead Death as You Dance with Death It Will Change Your Life

03/24/15

Reliving Many Bloody Sundays Rebirth of the Civil Rights Movement

03/07/15

"All Mankind is Divided Into Three Classes..." Some Aren't Buried Until They Are Seventy-five

02/23/15

Obama's Golden Opportunity On Leaving a Legacy

02/13/15

Suffering Yields Success Worrying Yields Warts

01/14/14

"Every Child is an Artist." The Question is What Remains in Adulthood?

01/12/15

Ozone to Ferguson A Journey That Never Seems To End

01/05/15

It Was the Best of Times It Was the Worst of Times....

01/01/15

A Hand Is Put Into Theirs... And the Hand May Be a Little Child's

12/29/14

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream The Disconnect Between Dreaming and Reality

12/26/14

What Einstein Taught Me About Riding a Bike ...Keep Moving

12/22/14

Joe Hill Died November 19, 1915 "I Never Died," Says He.

11/19/14

Death is the Best Invention of Life Breathing Is Not Living

11/14/14

From Witches to Marrying Monkeys Conservatives Have an Answer

11/10/14

To Thine Own Self Be True... An Ethical First Step

10/24/14

A Lesson of Life from Alexander the Great "Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal."

10/17/14

My Dots in Life Get Connected With the Singing of Pete Seeger

10/06/14

Nothing is Secure Which is a Great Blessing

10/03/14

Christopher Robin is Correct... However, You Must Believe It Before It Is.

09/29/14

Wolverton Mountain The Place Where Dreams Occur

09/26/14

Pushing Oneself... What I Learned from T. S. Eliot

09/14/14

Articles as a Living Legacy... Why I Write

09/12/14

Darkest Before Dawn A Logical Disconnect that Is True

08/15/14

Come Alive... Before You Die.

07/24/14

Orwell and Scottish Independence Or Smell the Heather and Vote for Independence

07/18/14

Burma-Shave... And Seeing the Light

07/07/14

The Chilling Reality of Global Warming Where Does Lying Get Politicians and the Rest of Us?

06/28/14

Connecting the Dots... For Scottish Independence

06/24/14

Moravec Evolution or the 21st Century Scopes Trial

06/21/14

Old Men Should Plant Trees... And They Should Be Planted Now.

06/16/14

Connecting the Dots With Jack and Owen Teaching Them To Be Steve Jobs-esque

06/14/14

Changing the World... The Story of My Struggle

06/10/14

Jack and Owen Novice 21st Century Johnny Appleseeds

06/01/14

Leaving a Legacy... A Concern of a 71-Year Old.

05/18/14

Orwell and Kipling and the Battle of Burma Or Why I Care

05/12/14

Learning to Play Chess from a Master What Jack and Owen Will Learn from Me.

05/02/14

Faulkner's Lesson of Life... Even When the Last Ding-dong of Doom has Clanged.

04/17/14

Connecting the Dots... On Your Way to Eldorado

09/09/12