Most Recent Posts
- Hecht’s Fourth Law
There is no time like the present for postponing what you don’t want to do.
- A Wow Guy
There is this guy i met in 1985. He was a second class petty officer, a nuclear machinist mate. He was the Pacific Fleet Sailor of the Year. He had finished high in the military division of 1982 Iron man Triathlon in Hawaii.
Yesterday was his 59th birthday.
Amazingly, he worked for me, the top Leadership, Management, and Education (LMET) enlisted course on the West Coast. I was the Director of the LMET Department, my twilight tour in the Navy. He was on his way to becoming a Limited Duty Officer, which led to him retiring a bunch of years later as a commander who would have made captain if it had not been for Navy politics.
He is currently the Senior Vice President, Federal Solutions Group of Life Cycle Engineering, is married to a beautiful Scottish Lass named Sandra, and they have two beautiful daughters married to two impressive young men.
He has run innumerable triathlon’s, marathons all over the world, and been the number one over-50 Xterra Triathlon athlete (did i get that right, Peter?) in the country. He won the US Military European Golf Tournament four times.
i could go on…
And you know what? He is one of the nicest guys in the world. He even put up with me playing racquetball and golf.
Best of all, he considers me to be a good friend.
Happy Birthday, one day late, Peter Thomas. Keep on chooglin’.
- King Arthur Lessons
About a year ago, Rod Stark and i were on the Sea ‘n Air Golf Course on the Naval Air Station North Island swinging away as we usually do every week on Friday and then Thursday since 1991 (with Marty Linville whom we lost in 2024).
On the fourth fairway, we spotted three migrating Canadian geese. Rod and i both knew one of the geese had lost its mate. We discussed how geese would never seek another mate if they lost to theirs mate.
Today, my brother-in-law, Danny Boggs, sent me a video of various water fowl landing in the water. There were two geese that landed, elegantly of course.
The video took me back to Rod and i watching the three geese with their gaggle on the golf course.
This all took me back to a wonderful book i read about forty years or more and have re-read numerous times. It’s T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Merlyn turns Arthur (Wart as a young boy) into various animals for the future king to learn about different types of governments and leaders. When he becomes a goose, Wart learns about a society that is a peaceful, cooperative, non-territorial that does not wage war or draw arbitrary borders.
i have many friends who are on the right, even “trumpian.” i wish to remain friends.
But i do wonder if they have ever read White’s wonderful book. Quite frankly, i am afraid they haven’t.
- Cheit’s Lament
If you help a friend in need, he is sure to remember. you…the next time he’s in need.
- roving man
he was a roving man,
a man of the sea,
chasing the women
in his ports of call,
wild,
except when he went to sea
and
became the get-it-done guy,
showing his expertise
in the ways of the sea;
some say he would talk to the sea,
which he did not deny;
and then,
his days at sea
came to an end:
he would talk to Amphitrite no more;
but
by happenstance,
he met his own goddess
and
he was wild no more;
the former roving man
settled down;
the two grew old together
and
they found joy
just in living, loving, caring,
needing no reveling,
no crowds,
just the two of them
living together,
which he discovered
is what love is all about.