One of the things I love about the aging computer I curse almost daily is the unexpected paths it unfolds before me some days. Take last night for example. I set out to verify something I'd heard on a late night talk radio show that was attributed to Albert Einstein. But enroute to that quote, I ended up very sidetracked. In fact, so wonderfully diverted from my quest did I become, it wasn't until settling into bed for the night I remembered I still hadn't answered the question about Einstein I'd gone seeking. But I had debunked a myth about Kurt Vonnegut and picked up some excellent advice as well.
Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left!." --supposedly. He was quoted in conjunction with the sudden and unexplainable disappearance of honey bees now occurring in many places globally. I knew Einstein was no entomologist, but attributing anything to the man who "discovered" relativity tends to lend extra credibility, even to the incredible or the irrelevant if he said it.
Learning, as I did last night, that bees are essential for pollinating some 90 varieties of vegetables and fruits in the U.S., it became urgent I learn if these workers who "put food on our tables" might pose the drastic threat to humanity of which Einstein tried to warn.
There'll always be types like me who get excited at news like that, just as there'll always be doubting Thomases who might respond like one commenter imagined: "Pollination? Who gives a fuck? I don't eat vegetables. Unless there's nothin' else in the fridge."
That's ok, there'll always be Neanderthals among us. They abound on radio talk shows, branches of higher government and among the media who fail to scratch where citizens are itching, i.e., for truth.
If the bee's collapsing colony disorder (CCD) brings on Einstein's societal downfall, those pooh-poohers will be the first ones knocking at your front door to borrow some honey and strawberries for their fruit smoothies.
But as I've said, I didn't realize I'd failed in my quest to validate Einstein's quote until retiring to bed. But I did learn along the way that Kurt Vonnegut did not deliver the wonderful speech I stumbled over which was attributed to him as supposedly delivered to the graduating class of MIT in 1997.
Instead, it was a Chicago Tribune column written by Mary Schmich and it was chock full of excellent advice I found myself mulling over instead of counting sheep as I lie in bed. Things like, "Read the directions, even if you don't follow them," ... "Floss," ... "Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly." ... "Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements." ... "Wear sunscreen."
One of my very favorites was the last one I remembered: "Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young." Throughout my years, I've tried to do that.
That was my last thought before remembering what I'd forgot, "Did Einstein really say that?"
6 comments:
I think that misattributed Vonnegut myth has remained so entrenched because it sounds so much like something he would've said. I've told many people that part about "the older you get, the more you need people who knew you when you were young", but never found anyone who really agreed with it. Glad to hear you understand. I'd be curious if you always understood this to be so, or if this type of knowledge came gradually? For me, for probably half my life so far, I thought myself complete within myself. The yrs have taught me otherwise.
Re: Bees! I don't know what Einstein might've thought, but I do know that mankind's zest for poisoning insects has caused a bee crash. Most farms now have to employ contrived apiaries. Scientists have been warning us for yrs how dependent we are on the one remaining pollinator. Pretty soon we will be forced to do the job by hand. Hey, another employment opportunity: my hub actually had this job in college! He got paid for pollinating orange trees for the univ ag program. It involved long poles dipped in one tree's parts which was then rubbed into another tree's parts, followed by attaching a paper bag over the receiving tree's parts! He doesn't know how long the bag was left in place, that was for a more "qualified" technician to determine. Except for the paper bag, good lifetime experience, eh? Sorry for the graphic image, I just had to pass that along. ~~ D.K.
Dada sayeth: 'One of my very favorites was the last one I remembered: "Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young." Throughout my years, I've tried to do that.'
Here I am (still here as "eljoven")from Dada's distant past & gapping that bridge; but worried about the effect of your listening to talk radio at night. It's bad enough during the day wherein one can pick up on such beauties as "one solution to the campus shootings is to have at least one ARMED student per classroom." To paraphrase another thinker who, although he didn't make the A-bomb possible but yet was a deep thinker, of sorts, listening to talk radio at bedtime "angers the blood." Or, as a street-wise "philosopher" advised me when I was worried about the shootings in the rough neighborhood where I was working decades ago: "Just be glad it wasn't you that was shot." With happy blood and gratitude at not having been shot, I've not had to worry too much about the bees. (But I do worry about the frogs...) Greetings from the "left coast."
Eljoven
The current issue of Mother Jones magazine has an article about the extinction we are causing. I tried to find it on their website, but it's not there (as far as I can tell).
In recent months and years I've had many friends come and go, but those few remain constant. Great quote.
Deke: I've felt this way for many, many years but don't when it first began. I used to tell Mrs. Dada that I tried to keep at least one friend from the institution that claimed me at any particular period of my life. But as time gets on, it's probably better to have a back up or two. (grin)
In the case of Anonymous who commented here ("eljoven") I am fortunate to enjoy "economies of scale" with him, i.e., being as how we were old HS classmates PLUS sharing our first two years of college. So in one person I have someone who shared not one, but two stages of my life, the second of which was the first of some very big steps in life.
Enjoyed hearing of your husband's part in the pollination of the orange groves. This is something of which I wasn't aware, but then I grew up in lemon and avocado orchards. I had an Ag major friend at Fresno St. who artifically inseminated cows. I think I'd prefer the orange groves.
Eljoven: Hey, good news! Our local radio station that carried Air America sold out. The result being, this weekend instead of Bobby Kennedy, we found oldies from the 50's and 60's playing! So this may be good for my future health as I wind down from each day sans the politics, but for the time being I'm really pissed.
I've even fantasized a couple times since then about starting a low powered FM station ala Santa Cruz Free Radio.
That aside, that leaves only late night "Coast to Coast" talk radio where much of the stuff is apolitical and fringy. I find it a pretty good sedative, although I managed to stay awake through the bee story, where I first heard it.
Bees, frogs, canaries...looks like they're all going to be very busy - as harbingers instead, huh?
Pam: As noted above, I try to keep at least one old friend from the schools, workplaces, military assignments of my past. I'm not real successful at it, which makes the ones I do have contact with all the more appreciated and valuable.
Classmates.com has been a resource, having located a couple of HS classmates there, and one in a college for which I'd had no contact. This latter case was interesting for I told my wife if one of two people from that school ever showed up there, I would take the plunge and become a paying member just to get their e-mail address.
Well one day I discovered one of those two old chums on the website, so I signed up and contacted Ken. The response wasn't exactly what I'd expected, i.e., he didn't remember me! Too young to have had a stroke (gulp, I think), I was taken aback. We'd shared some good times at school.
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