It's All Relative

Time - It’s all relative, or is it? In the Special Theory of Relativity Einstein determined that time is relative - in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference. This got me thinking about the Cubs, Doc Brown, and Back To The Future.

How do you determine your frame of reference? Here it is almost Christmas, oops, I mean Halloween (it just looks like Christmas at Home Depot where all the decorations are already in place). Soon we lose daylight savings time (November 1st) then its back to darkness at 5:00 pm. Honestly, it seems like we were just there. Doesn’t it to you too?

But on the bright side, it’s 2015 and the Cubs are in the playoffs. October baseball. That hasn’t happened since the Steve Bartman incident in game six of the NLCS 2003 - has it really been 12 years? I’m thinking he’s watching the playoffs on TV.

Can you believe it was 30 years ago that Back To The Future II predicted the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015! It seemed just yesterday. Where does time go? The Cubs, who are playing the Mets in the NLCS, haven't won the World Series since 1908 and have not made it to the Fall Classic since 1945. That was way before my time.

Relative, what exactly does that mean anyway? According to my online dictionary, relative is defined as; “Considered in relation or in proportion to something else.” So, that’s what we do - look at today and compare it to what our experiences remind us of.

Indeed, as we move into early darkness let's root, root, root for the Cubbies, and ponder what references you use to measure time. Today will soon be yesterday, and tomorrow will be here before you can say Cubs win!

It’s all relative anyway . . .

Comments

The Language of Home: Building a Sanctuary

This episode is for anyone trying to find their footing in a new place—whether it’s a new city, a new job, or a new country. The light in Florence, Italy, has a way of making everything feel like a Renaissance painting—the golden hue on the stone, the steady rhythm of the Arno River, and the feeling that you are walking through a history much larger than yourself. I was there to give a presentation to a class of Gemology students. I was prepared to discuss color grading and refractive indices, but not to be outed as a language tutor . Feeling very much like a guest in a storied land, a hand shot up enthusiastically. "You’re the guy on the podcasts," the young woman said, her eyes bright with recognition. "You’re the one teaching us English." I laughed nervously. If you know my flat Midwestern accent, you know the irony here. I am hardly an Oxford professor. But later, as I wandered the cobblestone streets beneath the shadow of the Duomo, the humor faded into a powe...

Practiced Hands: The 50-Year Warranty

What Doc Burch Taught Me About Staying Active. We talk a lot about "life hacks" these days, but most of them don’t have a very long shelf life. Usually, they’re forgotten by the next app update. But back in 1972, I received a piece of advice that came with a 50-year warranty. It’s the reason I’m still on my bike today, still chasing a golf ball around Carlsbad, and still—mostly—in one piece. The Kick That Changed Everything It started with a literal kick in the pants. A kid at school in Cuba, Illinois, was joking around and caught me just right. By the next morning, my lower back was screaming. My mom didn’t reach for the Tylenol; she reached for her car keys. "Let’s go see Doc Burch," she said. "He’ll fix you right up." Harry E. Burch, D.C., was a fixture in Lewistown. He’d graduated from Palmer College in ’59 and had been our family’s go-to for years. He was a man of practiced hands and steady eyes. After a quick exam and an X-ray, the mood in the room s...

Chasing 70

In this episode, Chasing 70: A Respectful Negotiation with Gravity They say golf is a game of misses. If that’s true, my first round of the year at Rancho Carlsbad was a masterclass in missing efficiently . After a four-month hiatus—during which my golf clubs quietly evolved into a self-sustaining garage ecosystem—Lori and I returned to our local par-three proving ground. Rancho Carlsbad is a par-54, just 1,983 yards long. That sounds forgiving until it exposes every weakness you’ve been politely ignoring during the off-season. I finished with a 78. In most contexts, 78 is respectable. On a par-54, it means I spent a fair amount of time “getting my steps in.” But here’s the real motivation: I turn 70 this August. As a core principle of my Great Un-Working Lifestyle, I’m putting it in writing: I want to shoot my age by my birthday. The Bald-Headed Man Course Around here, we have a nickname for Rancho Carlsbad. We call it the Bald-Headed Man Course. First, because there are no woods...

The Miller Effect

In this episode - The Miller Effect . . . The sun hung high in the sky, casting shadows across the desolate landscape of Huron, California. Dr. Vo, a brilliant yet witty electrical engineer, stood before the main breaker box of a massive 1.4 MW-DC solar array that had confounded everyone who had dared to diagnose its persistent issue. It had been six long months of head-scratching and ten failed attempts by others before the desperate call came into Dr. Vo's office. As the sun's rays bathed the vast array in an orange glow, Dr. Vo stepped up to the Main breaker box, his sharp eyes shaded by his green Cenergy cap. He wore his North Face jacket that billowed in the light breeze, and his presence exuded an air of mystery and intrigue that was as pervasive as the problem at hand. The solar array was a colossal assemblage of panels, wires, and inverters, but the main breaker kept tripping, sending the entire operation into chaos. The workers at the site were on edge, muttering, “We’...

On The Fly

Search This Blog