Tuesday, May 12, 2015

mid-May 2015


(edited because Siri is a poor typist)
Hello math girl. I was thinking about you. My old company, Intel semi conductor, had a LinkedIN blog about diversity. They are making good progress. A ignorant male commentator said that diversity was a liberal failure. I replied and pointed out that a poisonous climate is not a win and that the distribution in the work-group should reflect the marketplace. I want you to have good opportunity. It made me sad to remember that there was only one blond girl in all of C5, only one girl who looked like you of hundreds . I want you to have opportunity. I want you to have a better than one in hundreds odds of success.

It is midweek in mid-May in the Midwest. There are a lot of "mid's" in that sentence.

I wish I could tell you how the month of May is really its own season.  It is. I will have to tell you about it in person sometime.

We have a membership now at the YMCA. That is how people can go swimming in Ohio. It is unlike Phoenix in that the large majority of people do not have swimming pools in Ohio. I hope you have fun at the "Y".

You may not realize what I am doing, but I am talking and spending time with somebody who loves me: You. It may not feel like it to you. In my heart, in my inner self, I am not speaking at a phone but I am sharing my love and my joy and enthusiasm and some of the wonder that I have seen with somebody who is delightful and fun, with somebody who is interested in hearing it and who loves me. As much as this may be like the episode of SG-1 titled the "Torment of Tantalus"[1,2] where one of the characters has spent years in isolation -  in his heart, like mine, he was not alone. The love living inside of him allowed him to not be alone.

You will feel alone sometimes. What do you feel is not the same as what is. Just as important - what you see is not the same as what is. Truths of the heart and mind can provide astounding context that is, often, sadly, ignored. You can look at a sign on a building and instead of seeing colors or shapes your mind imposes on its words in text and imposes context.  That context does not exist within the perceived symbol it exists within the observer.  It exists within you.  An otherwise ignorant but intelligent first-time visitor to our universe seeing only that sign could not take from it what you do - no matter the level of intelligence available. Just like that sign there are many other components that define reality - from driving directions to time itself and what it means when o'clock on where the meeting is in the person not the object. If you look close you will find that the places where this occurs is strongly characterized by, and only find nucleation within, the context of community. In the same way that you can look at a symbol and see the meaning there is a subset of you that has meaning outside the symbol, a non-obvious part of valid reality. Like the vampire though, we cannot see ourselves in the mirror and so you cannot see clearly even the symbol and it is very hard to see the existence and very real meaning of the symbol within your own self. The fingerprints of what has formed you, what you have loved, they comprise your existence and your self, an intrinsic invisible but valid and important reality. Part of the meaning of that reality is that you, like me are never alone. Love has given meaning into your self that cannot be taken away or altered.  I have been lucky enough, graced by Providence enough, to be a part of that.

Wow! That is a lot of text to go through. I should stop here to maintain readability. I love you. I'm glad you were born. You are smart and fun and delightful. You are strong and fast and brave. You are one of my favorite people in the whole wide world.I love you. Talk to you later, math girl.

Love, Mathdad.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey, thanks for your awesome post! You have a great blog full of fantastic insights. It is so interesting how we perceive things as human beings, and how we assign value to things. I hope that your daughter can learn this important and valuable lesson. Mostly I loved the last part of the jumbo-paragraph :) Truly we are never alone, and love is so important. I have recently learned a lot about that subject. I feel like I sometimes put a lot of value on objects, when really my focus should be on people.

Once again, thanks for writing and sharing your thoughts on the big ol' world wide web! Right now I am a missionary for my church serving in Boston, MA. Feel free to check out my blog! :) beccainboston.blogspot.com