Our History is Within Us All

Darwin and The Origin of Species; An exhibit at the Chicago Field Museum.
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In Chicago when recently visiting the Field Museum for an exhibit on maps, I had the opportunity visit a concurrent exhibit simply titled "Darwin." While it did use historical documents and artifacts to explain the sources of his seminal work, The Origin of Species, it just as importantly provided a glimpse into the personal life of this most remarkable individual. Trained as a theologian as well as a biologist, Darwin delayed publishing Origin for 20 years over well-founded concerns that he would draw a reaction "like confessing a murder."


Darwin told us what evolution was. One hundred years later, Watson and Crick told us how it happens. I hold these as the two greatest discoveries in biology.

My Own Biologic History?

Recent reading of a number of popular books about genetics and DNA (The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins, and The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes), and discussions with Barbara about her new genealogy discoveries, sparked an interest in what might be our own ancient genealogic history. I was watching a National Geographic program and at the end there was a blurb about their "Genographic Project" that piqued my interest.

Ultimately, we have joined the Genographic project with buccal swabs from both of us, and we have also purchased kits from the Family Tree DNA company for Barbara, myself, and Barbara's father. (as it turns out, the University of AZ does the DNA analysis, y-DNA and mtDNA, both for National Geographic as well as for familytreedna.com.

We are trying not only to discover something about our distant roots, but also to establish the start of a DNA-based information file that I am certain will be a critical part of any geneaologic searching in the future.

Maps as History

Map of Treasure Island

1883

Robert Louis Stevenson

Barbara always includes a day at the Newberry Library for geneaology research when I attend the big radiology meeting in Chicago every fall. This year it happens that the Newberry had partnered with the Chicago Field Museum for an exceptional joint exposition from early Nov until Jan 27, so for the first time I joined her on a visit, first to the Newberry and then on to the Field Museum.

"In creating Maps: Finding Our Place in the World " the Field Museum has partnered with The Newberry Library, a world-renowned independent research library. The Newberry's extensive holdings include rare books, manuscripts, and 500,000 historic maps, making it a foremost authority on the history of cartography." (From the museum website.) For a 3-D oversight of the Field Museum exhibit click here.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we could not miss. We were allowed to inspect closely some of the most significant maps in the world, as well as some that were just interesting and beautiful.

The collection ranged from 3+ thousand year-old clay maps, to Garmin GPS devices and Google Earth displays. There was the first "map" of the internet (ARPANET - 1982), maps of currents and islands with sticks from the south Pacific, cosmological maps from religious traditions, and of course, many historically significant traditional maps.

The items ranged in size from a few inches to perhaps 20 feet. All were displayed in subdued light, but most still could be viewed from only inches away. (in the Newberry, they actually provided magnifying glasses.)

There were original maps by Leonardo da Vinci (of a town), George Washington (French military outpost on the frontier), Ab Lincoln (survey of a township), Thomas Jefferson (proposed map of new states (with names) between the colonies and the Mississippi), Ben Franklin, JRR Tolkien, Wm Clark (of Lewis and Clark), M Servetus (link), and Charles Lindbergh (the map/chart used in his transatlantic flight).

The "Great Map"

One map was particularly impressive. A year or two ago I read "The Map That Changed The World," a popular historical book by Simon Winchester. It is an account of William Smith’s life and his "great map." In short, Smith was the first real geologist, and his geological map of England set a totally new paradigm for understanding everything from topical geology to plate tectonics.

His map was right there, taller than me, and close enough to touch!

Few geologists or historians of science have ever seen a copy. Because of its rarity and its size, it is difficult to display and even more difficult to study. One is displayed on the wall of the private meeting rooms of the Geological Society of London (behind a shade) but I do not know anywhere that it is open to public view. Because watercolors fade rapidly under ordinary light, libraries and museums can only expose it only under exceptional circumstances and for short durations.

There were a few other related artifacts such as the chronometer Capt Cook used on his round-the-world voyage that were used to compliment the maps, but it was essentially just the maps, maps, and more wonderful maps.

There are actually entire websites and blogs dedicated to Cartography. You might want to visit The Map Room as an example.

Sharing more than thoughts . . .

"Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly."

M. F. K. Fisher

Bangers and Mash with a pint in an English Pub

There is a variety of ways to share food: giving to a food bank, taking a dish to a pot luck, asking friends over for a meal, and vice versa. The most intimate sharing however is when you say "this is really good," and pass to me a bite straight from your plate . . . on your own fork. . . and wait for me to take it to my mouth and render my own opinion. This is sharing yourself, as well as your bacteria, etc.

Now it should be no surprise that Barbara and I share bites of food all the time. I have a (pathological?) aversion to ordering the same thing as her (she?) when we go out to eat, since if I order the same thing we only get to sample that one dish, but if I order something different, the variety in our dining experience is doubled!

The other evening we were out with friends. (Yes we have a few.) Among the 4 of us we had 2 wines, 3 starters, 4 entrees and one desert, and each of us tasted most of these. The one desert was delivered, as we requested, with 4 forks. It wasn't quite a group of pacific islanders sitting around eating with our hands from a common bowl, but it wasn't far removed either. As we shared the food, we also shared experiences, thoughts, feelings, and plans. It all seemed natural, right, and pleasurable, and left us with warm feelings at the end of the evening.

Most friends seem eager to share an especially nice dish, some share with a little encouragement, and some just are not into sharing their food that way. One can usually tell if friends are the "sharing" types or not, and not sharing one's dinner makes them no less a friend.

Sharing . . . something we should have learned as children . . . can be a tremendous enrichment to this life, and that includes lunchtime.

Books into Movies

A number of years ago, I had more or less given up on going to movies of a good book I had already read. Even Remains of the Day, as good as Hopkins was, left me disappointed when the full power of the book just wasn't quite there for me. Then, several years ago, I decided to see The Shipping News, mainly because I'm such a Judi Dench fan, even though I could not conceive of how this Pulitzer-winning novel could possibly be transferred to the screen. I was most pleasantly surprised, and these days I have to keep open the possibility that a screenwriter and a director might have successfully transformed a good book into a just-as-good movie.

This week I have seen the ads for an upcoming movie "No Country for Old Men," and again I am mystified as to how it would be possible to bring Cormac McCarthy's book of the same name to the screen. Cormac is a good writer about a bad world. From Blood Meridian to The Road, the dark, depraved, bad (evil?) side of humankind dominates and overwhelms his writings, though the protagonist are, for the most part, good men. No Country is no different, and scene after scene of depraved violence fills the pages. Here, the worlds of evil and good are perhaps more crystal clear than in his other works, and maybe that is why we now will have the movie. Sheriff Bell is a quiet Christian (Presbyterian judging by his predestinationist philosophy), looking for the good while living with the bad, and contemplating regularly over his good fortune to meet and marry Emma, his wife of several decades. McCarthy emphaticlly separates these positive thoughts into completely separate, short chapters, printed entirely in italics. As the title of the book suggest, there is an alienation of this older man from much of current socitey, maybe that's what drew me into the book to begin with.

I find Cormac McCarthy books cannot be read in sequence, but need some space (years?) between them. There are brief moments of salvation in the perdition through which his stories wind, but you pay dearly to catch those glimpses. No Country for Old Men is not considered one of Cormac's top works, and is just a few pages beyond a short story (thus ideal for a movie script). Knowing the penchance of the movie-makers for overdoing graphical violence, I don't know if I will see this movie even out of curiosity.

Worth 100' of your time . . .

Randy Pausch giving his "Final Talk"

Recently a friend, Ranjan Jayanathan from Dynamic Imaging, sent me a link to "The Final Lecture" given by Randy Pausch. You may have already seen clips of this on 60 Minutes or elsewhere. There are not many things I read or watch on the internet that affect my life, particularly at my age. This is one of them.

Randy Pausch is 48, is dying from pancreatic cancer (he gets this "elephant in the room" out of the way quickly by showing pictures of his recent CT scan and then moving on), and in this last lecture he reviews the important lesions he has learned in his life in academics and industry. This is not some sappy, inspirational video, but an exceptional human sharing what he thinks is really important, perhaps the importance of actually "living" ones life; not just existing on this planet for as many years as possible.

It is around 100 minutes, and I don't regret I made the time to watch it. It was much more important than most of the TV I watch. if you decide to spend the time, don't skip the introductions nor the post-talk awards.
Here the link to the Video: mms://wms.andrew.cmu.edu/001/pausch.wmv
And also: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/front_im/pausch_9-18-07.wmv

Wikipedia link here
Randy's own website here

Postscript to the travel postings: My Trophy Hat

"Idaho Outdoors" Cap"

I'm not one for ball caps as a rule - I tend to wear a hat with a substantial brim, if anything. However there are exceptions.

The usual place I will wear a ball cap is when I am reading in bed, because the overhead reading lights here in Cedar Rapids or in the motorhome cause a glare in my glasses, and the cap works perfectly to shield that glare (this really drives Barbara crazy).

This "Idaho Outdoors" cap arrived today in the mail as a flashback to our recent trip. If you remember, we mentioned visiting the "City of Rocks" National Monument while in Idaho. The day we left, the Idaho Statesman newspaper carried their weekly "Where is this?" contest, and this week it was a picture of one of the rock formations in City of Rocks National Monument. Having just been to this out-of-the-way place, I recognized this particular formation, "Register Rock". I sent my entry in via email and . . . first prize - the cap! Now I can irritate Barbara in style with my new, fully anti-glare bed cap.

This is STILL an important book.

Today is the 50th year of the publication of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I have seen several articles about her and this book. It is critical for young readers to realize that in 1920 she moved from socialist Russia to capitalist America; this at a time of global evolution (not revolution) with uncertainty as to what form of society would become dominant. This novel was the best means Rand had for expressing her understanding of this conflict, and her personal philosophy.

We have seen the decline of socialism and growth of capitalism from the USSR to China to the western world. I, myself, see evils in the extremes of both, but I certainly know where I would like to live.

Capitalism, ultimately, has to be concerned with the welfare of the general population rather than simply brutal, short-term enrichment. For it to succeed, all must succeed, and the chance for that is better than the chances with socialism. The best of the reviews of Rand's book that I have come across is from the TIA, published HERE.

CELEBRATION!

Final Night of the Trip Together

(Click picture to enlarge)

Tuesday, our final road night together, the four of us celebrated the our trip with a glass of champagne. We had spent 36 days together, and it was a bit sad to come to the end of the trip.

We have followed the immigrants along much of the Oregon and California trails, traveled along portions of the Lewis and Clark trail, and seen much of modern urban and rural Oregon. Of course, we were really glad to get to spend some time with Matt/John and Rachael in Portland. We also serendipitously connected with RV friends in Astoria and Reno and met a few new ones. (When I turned our motorhome in here in Cedar Rapids for several small fixes, I was able to tell the young lady at the service counter that I had talked with her father at the RV park in Baker City.) The weather was exceptionally good to us overall.

Barbara and I have done a lot of traveling in our 36 years together, but it is still nice to know that we can spend essentially 24 hrs a day, 39 days in a row, in less than 400 sq ft and still get along fine.

Of course that is one relationship. Traveling with another couple, there are 4 relationships that have to function reasonably well, and they did so. We have done several RV trips with Bill and Dana, but this was the longest, and it was good to see we still do it well. It requires some compromises and a certain amount of tolerance, but the payoff is well worth it.

For those of you who have followed the journey on this blog, this is the last post. I will keep it active until the constraints of Google's limit on my blog account is breached, then it will have to go. It has been fun for me; I hope it has been entertaining for you. Thank you.