curious, wanting
find the answers, bottle the
spirit of science

“My goal in this was to make science aspirational, to see cool young people passionate about science, curious and wanting to find the answers and trying to bottle the spirit of science.

“The average viewer thinks of scientists as guys in labs and white coats and they don’t think of themselves as earthy real people and I wanted to break through that and go on their journey. That was our jumping off point and, because of the pandemic, it took a long time to get going but, once we got out there, we some pretty amazing stuff.”

Moviemaker James Cameron in the interview, ‘It’s harder to write sci-fi because we’re living in a sci-fi world’ by David Smith in the Guardian today.

bring all of your dreams
wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth
away from the world

Bring me all of your dreams, 
You dreamers. 
Bring me all of your 
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them 
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too rough fingers
Of the world. 

The Dreamkeeper From The Weary Blues (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926) by Langston Hughes.

The image is of the Whale Branch, a river that winds northeasterly from the Broad River to the Coosaw River. The Branch crosses under US 21 at Seabrook, which has a broad marsh and grass islands along both of its shores in South Carolina. (NPSN … no photoshop needed)

Then I look at you
And the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you

35 years ago we got married.

35 years and a few days, we went over to our Church to meet with our Pastor for pre-marital counseling AND to meet with the church organist to go over the music.

Our Pastor was a no show so our Organist went over the music and then offered us some pre-marital advice for free.

“Be nice to each other,” was all he said.

And never were more true words about being in a marriage ever spoken.

What he didn’t say was how hard that would be somedays.

Watching us from afar through facebook and social media, one may not realize that they are seeing the best of us, the stuff we wants folks to see about us.

But we have bad moments.

We have bad days.

We have bad weeks.

We have … well, you get the picture.

But we are still here.

When I started this essay I went searching for a quote that I wanted to use to illustrate our marriage.

It was a quote from the movie Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen asks the Navy Chief if he wants to know where they are going and the Chief replies with something like, “One look at you and I know it’s going to be hot …”

My thought was to use that to point out that my wife had fair warning of what she was getting into by marrying me.

I searched, “One look at you” and The Google brought back the song Lovely Day by Bill Withers from back when I was in high school.

I read the lyrics and I said to myself that fits, that works, that is how I feel, in fact, that is how we feel.

We might not make it through the day feeling that way but we start out that way.

And that’s pretty good.

After 35 years, that’s not bad.

And tomorrow?

I can tell you, it is gonna be ….

Love you Leslie!.

Here are the Lyrics (BTW one on the comments on this song posted on You Tube says that “Rumour has it he’s up in heaven still holding that note!”

When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind

Then I look at you
And the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it’s gonna be

When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
And when someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

The world’s alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it’s gonna be
A lovely day

share that this matters
today as it mattered three
centuries ago

“Unfortunately there are elements of our nation that have taken a stand that history and culture are not important, this should not be taught, should not be introduced; that this is irrelevant. And so the work that we do now is even more steadfast because we have to really share with the nation and the world that this matters today as it mattered three centuries ago.”

Michael Allen, a Gullah Geechee co-founder of the annual Sweetgrass Festival quoted in the article, ‘It speaks of heritage’: South Carolina sweetgrass festival preserves Gullah Geechee culture” by Adira R. Wakjer in the Guardian.

The festival, held in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston and home to 14 Gullah Geechee communities, aims to promote and preserve the tradition of sweetgrass weaving, a centuries-long tradition started by enslaved people in the region and passed down to future generations.