Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens

The Meanings of Life

I wrote in a earlier blog that I had found the meaning of life, but then forgot it.

Well, I found it written down in one of my journals. Actually, there are two:

1. Love is all there is, and there' ain't nothing else. No matter how you feel about it, you just can't live without it. (Take it from someone who's tried.)

2. Never draw to an inside straight.

Now that you are armed with these two pieces of valuable information, get yer asses out on this beautiful day and run.

CB

Welcome To Autumn

At 5:18 PM Eastern time, Autumn arrives.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

John Muir

A Good Man Passes On

We lost a good man last Thursday. Dr. Brian Emery was killed in a car crash on Route 32. Brian was a great guy, a compassionate and respected physician, a caring coach, and a good friend. Brian had gone through some tough times, including a divorce, but was always positive about the future. In fact, he was engaged to be remarried to a woman that lit him up with happiness.

I learned much from him. He was a good human being, and he will be missed.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/bal-crash0911,0,3656359.story

Make Route 32 Safe website....http://www.makeroute32safe.com/index.html

I Am My Brother's Keeper; I Am My Sister's Keeper

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT WREATH-LAYING CEREMONYAT THE PENTAGON MEMORIAL

The Pentagon

Arlington, Virginia
9:34 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen and members of the Armed Forces, fellow Americans, family and friends of those that we lost this day -- Michelle and I are deeply humbled to be with you.

Eight Septembers have come and gone. Nearly 3,000 days have passed -- almost one for each of those taken from us. But no turning of the seasons can diminish the pain and the loss of that day. No passage of time and no dark skies can ever dull the meaning of this moment. So on this solemn day, at this sacred hour, once more we pause. Once more we pray -- as a nation and as a people; in city streets where our two towers were turned to ashes and dust; in a quiet field where a plane fell from the sky; and here, where a single stone of this building is still blackened by the fires.

We remember with reverence the lives we lost. We read their names. We press their photos to our hearts. And on this day that marks their death, we recall the beauty and meaning of their lives; men and women and children of every color and every creed, from across our nation and from more than 100 others. They were innocent. Harming no one, they went about their daily lives. Gone in a horrible instant, they now "dwell in the House of the Lord forever."

We honor all those who gave their lives so that others might live, and all the survivors who battled burns and wounds and helped each other rebuild their lives; men and women who gave life to that most simple of rules: I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.

We pay tribute to the service of a new generation -- young Americans raised in a time of peace and plenty who saw their nation in its hour of need and said, "I choose to serve"; "I will do my part." And once more we grieve. For you and your families, no words can ease the ache of your heart. No deeds can fill the empty places in your homes. But on this day and all that follow, you may find solace in the memory of those you loved, and know that you have the unending support of the American people.

Scripture teaches us a hard truth. The mountains may fall and the earth may give way; the flesh and the heart may fail. But after all our suffering, God and grace will "restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." So it is -- so it has been for these families. So it must be for our nation.

Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and who plot against us still. In defense of our nation we will never waver; in pursuit of al Qaeda and its extremist allies, we will never falter.

Let us renew our commitment to all those who serve in our defense -- our courageous men and women in uniform and their families and all those who protect us here at home. Mindful that the work of protecting America is never finished, we will do everything in our power to keep America safe.

Let us renew the true spirit of that day. Not the human capacity for evil, but the human capacity for good. Not the desire to destroy, but the impulse to save, and to serve, and to build. On this first National Day of Service and Remembrance, we can summon once more that ordinary goodness of America -- to serve our communities, to strengthen our country, and to better our world.

Most of all, on a day when others sought to sap our confidence, let us renew our common purpose. Let us remember how we came together as one nation, as one people, as Americans, united not only in our grief, but in our resolve to stand with one another, to stand up for the country we all love.

This may be the greatest lesson of this day, the strongest rebuke to those who attacked us, the highest tribute to those taken from us -- that such sense of purpose need not be a fleeting moment. It can be a lasting virtue. For through their own lives –- and through you, the loved ones that they left behind –- the men and women who lost their lives eight years ago today leave a legacy that still shines brightly in the darkness, and that calls on all of us to be strong and firm and united. That is our calling today and in all the Septembers still to come.

May God bless you and comfort you. And may God bless the United States of America.

END 9:40 A.M. EDT

Money Doesn't Grow On Trees, But Perhaps Electricity Does

Trees produce electricity. How electrifying.

In an experiment that will seem familiar to students of the old potato project, University of Washington researchers stuck one electrode into a bigleaf maple, and another in the ground, and saw that the tree generated a tiny stream of electricity - a few hundred millivots. That's not enough electricity to do much, except to run a circuit and get published in the scientific journal Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Transactions on Nanotechnology.

(As of that potato, this experiment is different, the authors said: "The tree-power phenomenon is different from the popular potato or lemon experiment, in which two different metals react with the food to create an electric potential difference that causes a current to flow." The tree experiment uses the same metal for both electrodes.)

A few hundred millivolts of electricity isn't enough to do much. Or is it? The scientists built a custom boost converter using nanotechnology that stores input voltages of as little as 20 millivots (20 thousandths of a volt) and produces 1.1 volts -- enough to run low-power sensors that might monitor environmental conditions, help detect forest fires or gauge the health of trees.

And in the future, who knows? Maybe we will be plugging in our iPods on long hikes with a little tree power.

Poker Lessons on Life

I have been playing poker since I was a young boy. In college I often supplemented my meager wages by playing poker with friends, the rugby team, and in the back room at Town Hall Tavern in College Park. Poker has bought me many a tank of gas, and more than a few rounds of brews. More important, however, poker has taught me much about life. Such as...

1. There is some good in all bad people, and some bad in all good people.

2. Fortune favors the bold.

3. Luck is not distributed evenly; it comes in batches.

4. Learn how to win and how to lose.

5. Poker forces you to put yourself into another’s shoes.

6. Poker teaches emotional control through deferring pleasure.

7. Poker teaches you to analyze and act based on incomplete information.

So shuffle up and deal.

The Wilderness Act: A 'Down Payment on Forever'

Every once in awhile, Congress outdoes itself and gets something really right.

One of those somethings is the Wilderness Act of 1964, whose 45th anniversary was celebrated September 3.

The product of both extraordinary vision and practical politics, the Wilderness Act is the "gold standard" of conservation.

The Wilderness Act also is the gold standard of legislative craftsmanship. The law gives ordinary citizens across the country the tools to fight bottom-up campaigns to protect treasured places - forests and deserts, mountains and marshes, spare tundra and verdant tropics.

The passage of time shows that ordinary citizens have put those tools to spectacularly good use. The Wilderness Act included 54 initial wilderness areas covering 9.1 million acres. Today, 45 years later, there are 756 wilderness areas covering nearly 110 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico - nearly 5 percent of America's total land area.

Tthat achievement is a down payment on forever. There are lots more places deserving of wilderness designation - the Tumacacori Highlands in Arizona, the Scotchman Peaks in Montana, the Cheyenne River Valley in South Dakota, to name a few.

And when they are designated, the protection will last. One of the strokes of brilliance that went into writing the Wilderness Act was hardwiring preservation into the statute books.

Passing laws is hard because the Constitution's writers made it hard. The Founders wanted lawmakers to discuss and deliberate, to get the wording right. A consequence of making passage of laws difficult is that undoing passage of laws is equally difficult.

The Wilderness Act's supporters knew that. The boundaries of designated wilderness areas are written into law. The lines on the map cannot be moved so much as a foot without an act of Congress, shielding wilderness areas from bureaucratic whims and transitory political pressures.

In an era of rabid partisanship, it's also worth remembering that wilderness protection is largely bipartisan. The Wilderness Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. When it was first introduced in 1956, its Senate sponsor was Hubert Humphrey, the Minnesota Democrat who was the liberal icon of Congress before the late Edward Kennedy assumed that role. The sponsor in the House was John Saylor, a Pennsylvania Republican who lived out the true meaning of conservatism through his combative campaigns to protect America's wild heritage, which Saylor called "buffers for the human spirit."

Had To Do It

I had to do it.

A friend told me about The Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte.

My favorite song is Thunder Road. Smells like destiny to me.

The race is on December 12, and yes, that his just a mere six weeks or so after the Marine Corps Marathon, but c'est le guerre.

And I've also decided to use this race to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. That means I have to run it in 3:30, about 30 minutes better than my fastest time. Nothing like setting unrealistic goals for oneself.

Springsteen, Love, Rock & Roll and A Broken Heart

Here's the thing about Bruce Springsteen...

The first time I heard Jungleland I think I had an out of body experience, especially at the end with the primal scream. There may be other songs like it out there, but I can't think of one. I haven't written about this before because it's been hard to imagine putting into words how this song affected - and still affects - me.

Fortunately, I've just found an essay that Greil Marcus wrote for Rolling Stone at the time, about the Born to Run album in its entirety, that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject. Marcus talks about how it's not necessary to know all of the lyrics of a song to understand what it's about. He's absolutely on the money when he says that, about this song or any other, for that matter. Of course, being the hero-worshipping, Springsteen fanatic that I am, I can recite the Jungleland lyrics in my sleep. And even though I have listened to this song thousands of times, I am devastated every time I hear it, blown away by the futility in the story being told, the horror of a life force wasted and pretty much no one caring - a story that plays out every day in jungles of one kind or another all over the world, a story that has played out in my own life on more painful occasions than I care to recite.

All of that is conveyed in the music alone, in Clarence Clemons' doleful sax solo, in Roy Bittan's heavenly piano, and in Bruce's utterly unbearable howl at the end. It's not unlike going to an opera that's performed in Italian and has no subtitles (or you just don't look at them), yet the emotions you have in response to what you're witnessing are exactly the ones you should be having. Marcus notes that, at the same time, the Born to Run songs are "exhilarating." Why that should be the case is hard to fathom. Certainly this song has nothing but tragedy written all over it. But the musicianship on Jungleland is so astonishing that it quite simply is experienced as a small miracle. A phenomenal degree of care was taken in its creation (in The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen by Rob Kirkpatrick, it's stated that Bruce spent the better part of a day with Clemons going over every note of the solo, for example.)

So we're getting blood, sweat and tears, not just in the story but in the backstory. It's a 9-1/2 minute opera and it is as close to perfection as anything in rock history gets.

70 Years Ago Today

Today marks the 70th "anniversary" of World War II. On this day, without provocation or a declaration of war, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, igniting a global conflict that killed over 70 million people and launched the Cold War.