What Would Jimmy Do?

If you check your calendar, you’ll see that today is the first day of October…. what your calendar may not tell you is that today just also happens to be the Chinese Moon Festival. This is a holiday that has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years and is probably the second largest festival in China — after the Chinese New Year. The Moon Festival is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This is one of those holidays that you can’t ask your calendar app to remind you of every year — it is observed on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. It can occur in either September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, and this year (2020) it’s today.

This autumn festival falls during the full Moon nearest the fall equinox, which is said to be the brightest and roundest full moon. In China, festivities involve brightly colored lanterns, dances, games and other forms of entertainment. People celebrate into the evening to give thanks for the harvest and for being together, offering each other wishes for happiness and long life and remembering loved ones who live far away.

If you’d like to celebrate in a traditional way tonight, you can make some offerings to the Moon goddess Chang’e or share traditional mooncakes by moonlight. Mooncakes are round pastries that symbolize the full Moon and are often filled with red bean or lotus seed paste surrounding a salted egg yolk in the center. 

But no matter how you celebrate, we’re off and running into October and this year we get to kick it off with the Moon Festival.
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As painful as it was, I watched the presidential debate last night.
In my, admittedly simplistic, mind the big loser was the United States of America….
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Today is Confucius Day — in honor of Confucius. You probably know that, among other things, Confucius was an early Chinese philosopher. Confucius was born in China on October 18, 551 B.C. and if not the first, certainly one of the earliest great philosophers of the world. He was also a teacher, scholar, and a politician. I read somewhere that there are 499 famous sayings that are contributed to Confucius.

It might not surprise you to learn that Confucius wasn’t his real name — it was Kong Qiu, and he was known as Master Kong. When he was living, his views were generally received with scorn. Following his death, a handful of his dedicated followers passed on Confucius’ teaching to future generations in the book, The Analects of Confucius.

It took many years after Confucius’ death for his philosophies to be appreciated, but today, Confucianism is an ethical school of thought adopted by many “thinkers” around the world. More and more followers of Confucianism are advocating a deeper study of his philosophies.

Over the years, many comical or humorous sayings have been created and referred to as sayings of Confucius. As a rule of thumb, if the saying is humorous, chances are it is not a true saying by the scholarly Confucius. You’ve probably heard some of these attributed to Confucius:
“Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient,” or “Man who leaps off cliff, jumps to conclusion,” or maybe “War does not determine who is right, war determines who is left.” These are all funny and clever, but they didn’t come from Confucius. 

Some of Confucius’ better know sayings include:
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Real knowledge is to know the extend of one’s ignorance.
Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.

So I’d say that one of the world’s greatest philosophers deserves his day. And, in fact, Confucius Day dates back thousands of years. I couldn’t find any information as to who actually came up with the idea, or why September 29th was chosen for the date. 
But no matter — one of Confucius’ most famous sayings is, “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself. That’s good advice for all days.
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We went to church last week and after church I was talking to a friend that I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. I had almost forgotten that the simplest conversation with him takes a long time. I think we all know people like that — they insist on giving you every nitty-gritty little step when you wish they’d cut through the chase and just give you the bottom line. All this painstaking detail makes your brain start to hurt. I’m sure there must be a lot of communication “styles.”  In fact, there is an online quiz called “What’s Your Communication Style?” If you’re interested, you can check it out and even take the quiz — it’s free. Anyhow, I though it was interesting…. according to the site, about 21% of people have Functional communication style and roughly 24% have an Intuitive communication style. The Intuitive style seems to be the style more prevalent in very senior executive roles. 

Intuitive communicators like the big picture and avoid getting bogged down in details. They prefer a broad overview that lets them skip right to the end point.
Functional communicators like process, detail, timelines and well-thought out plans. They communicate things in a step-by-step fashion so nothing get missed

One benefit of Intuitive communication is not getting bogged down in too many details, allowing greater comfortability with big ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. 
The benefit of having a Functional communication style is that the communication generally hits all the details and nothing gets missed.

Of course the important thing isn’t the style — the important thing is that there actually is communication, something that seems to be lacking too often today. Even though I prefer someone who gets to the point quickly, I’m working on being more patient with “functional communicators.” I keep reminding myself that they’re not just rambling, they’re detail oriented.

And now, I’m learning about a whole new set of communication types — I haven’t figured texting out yet, and don’t get me started on emojis…
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You all know that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol — according to the news, the first woman to ever be given the honor. Well, in this day of not believing everything (or maybe even most of) what you hear, I got to thinking… it doesn’t seem that long ago that Rosa Parks’s casket was displayed at the Capitol. After doing some checking, there are two terms that I thought pretty much meant the same thing — to lie in repose and to lie in state. Both you faithful readers know that this information just begged for some extensive research on my part.

When a member of government dies, if their casket is on display in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, they they are consider to lie in state. 
If the casket is in any other building, the government official, or former government official is considered to lie in repose.

Because Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in the Capitol Rotunda — to invited guests only, due to the pandemic — she will lie in state, becoming the only woman to do so. Actually, only 34 others have been honored as lying in State — all of them were men. According to my extensive research, everyone that has been given the honor of lying in state has been a distinguished government official, but there is no technical rule that requires that a person has to be a government official. The guidelines read “Any person who has rendered distinguished service to the nation may lie in state if the family so wishes and Congress approves.” So the determination as to who gets to lie in stare is determined by the House and Senate.

When Justice Ginsburg’s casket moves to be honored at the Supreme Court, she will lie in repose, with her coffin at the top of the building’s front steps. 

So — was Rosa Parks, when she was honored at the Capitol lying in repose? Nope — even though she was honored at the Capitol, she was a private citizen, not a government official or a Congress approved honorary. Therefore, she was considered to be lying in honor. Evangelist Billy Graham was also honored by lying in honor at the Capitol.

The term “lying in honor” also includes those members of government, or former members of government placed on view in the U.S. Capitol for the public to pay their respects — but not in the formal Capitol Rotunda. 

Like a lot of things, using he correct term sometimes gets a little confusing, but no matter the terminology used, it’s the “honor” that we should be concerned with — that’s not something that’s bestowed — it’s something that’s earned.
Rest in Peace, Justice Ginsburg.
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If you’ve read this blog over the years, you know that there have been several entries about and around the equinoxes. There are a lot of myths and traditions associated with these events and those “turning points” have played significant roles in human culture. If you’re interested, you can check the archives to see some of the myths/traditions I’ve pursued a bit over the years.

As I write this, there is only about ten minutes left in the summer of 2010. Since the autumnal equinox is fast approaching, I thought it might be a good time to visit the subject again. Equinoxes signal the changes in seasons — but so do solstices, so what’s the difference —or — are they pretty much the same and just referred to by different names.
Well, they’re not the same — in fact they’re distinctly different. 

Most people know that the seasons change because the Earth is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the Sun. This means that different points on the ground receive more or less sunlight at different times of the year. If the Earth wasn’t tilted, the Sun would always appear to be directly above the Equator and the amount of light any given location received would be fixed — there would be no “seasons.”

But we do have seasons and every year we have two equinoxes and two solstices. So let’s get the differences out of the way…. solstices are the days when the Sun’s path in the sky is the farthest north or south of the Equator. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and the summer solstice is the longest day of the year. Equinoxes are the days when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, which makes daylight and darkness of equal length. As you know, the seasons are reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal (spring) equinox occurs about March 21 — day and night are of equal length and that marks the start of spring.
The autumnal (fall) equinox occurs about September 23 — again, day and night are of equal length and this marks the start of autumn.

The summer solstice occurs on June 20 or 21 — it’s the longest day of the year and marks the start of summer.
The winter solstice occurs on December 21 or 22 — it’s the shortest day of the yea and marks the start of winter. 

So goodbye summer — hello fall, right on schedule. Seems like solstices and equinoxes are about the only things that haven’t changed this year….
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Argh, me hearties! Here be me most favorite holiday again — Talk Like a Pirate Day. Shiver ye timbers and buckle ye swash ‚ me and me wench Claire have been lookin fore t’ it since last year. You can bet we’ll be out with our eyepatches and pulling the usual shenanigans tonight. 

But I thought this year, I’d do something different and use this space to possibly correct some popular misconceptions about real pirates…. but before I get started, I should make a necessary public service announcement — even though this is a day to imitate a pirate, please do not pillage, steal or brawl. Now, let’s talk about real pirates lives….

Pirates didn’t bury their treasure — this is a huge part of the pirate myth. When a voyage was over all the loot would be divided among the crew immediately, and would usually quickly find its way into the pubs and brothels of the port they landed in. A lot of pirates wanted their share of the loot beforehand, and a pirate’s treasure wasn’t always gold or silver — a lot of it was food, lumber, cloth, and animal hides.

The skull and crossbones flag at the top of a pirate ship is called a Jolly Roger. This is one of those things in pirate history that’s gotten lost over the years — no one seems to really know the origin of the name. But there are a few theories…. the use of red flags centuries ago was a commonly used naval warfare signal that no mercy would be given, and anyone captured would be killed immediately. The French called these flags Joli Rogue (“pretty red’) — the theory is that this was then translated into English as Jolly Roger. Another theory is that Jolly Roger derived from “Old Roger,” a term for the Devil. Of course, not every ship used a Jolly Roger flag. Some pirates had their flags specially made by a sail-maker’s widow who took payment in brandy. Blackbeard (supposedly the most feared pirate of all) had his own black flag featuring a skeleton with horns. The skeleton held an hourglass in one hand, and in the other he carried a spear pointing to a heart dripping with three drops of blood.
Even though the Jolly Roger is probably the most famous, and well-known, pirate flag, it was mostly seen in the Caribbean at the time of the Spanish conquest, and was generally used to scare other ships into surrendering without a fight. Often pirate ships just used a plain black flag when sailing between ports.

Each pirate ship had its own set of rules and a code that all pirates on that ship had to agree to. Some of the rules included how the loot would be divided, who had what chores and what was expected of everyone. Surprisingly, one of the most common rules was no fighting onboard. If two pirates had a disagreement they’d have to wait, and fight on land. 

Democracy ruled on pirate ships — every member of a pirate crew had a say in what happened on board the ship. The captain had total control during a battle at sea, but his power was nominal day to day. The quarter-master was top dog in terms of managing the other pirates for most of the time on board pirate ships.

The “official” pirate drink, or at least their drink of choice was Grog. Grog is a mixture of rum, water, lemon juice, and sugar — yum!

You see a lot of pictures of pirates wearing eye patches — they really did wear eye patches. One theory is that they wore the patches to help keep one eye adjusted for “night vision” to see better below deck.

As cool as it may sound, pirates almost never made people walk the plank — most pirates just killed people straightaway. When they did torture prisoners, it was usually through keelhauling (dragging a tied prisoner in the water from the back of the ship. Other popular tortures were marooning a person on a deserted island or lashing with a leather strap.

A lot, if not most, pirates wore earrings. There are a lot of theories about why, but the reason(s) were practical, not for decoration. Some pirates believed that the precious metals in earrings possessed magical healing powers and would improve or cure bad eyesight. Earrings were usually given to young sailors as a symbol of their first crossing of the equator and supposedly, their purpose was to protect the eardrums during battle. Another story is that pirates that fired the ships’ cannons during combat with the enemy, dangled wads of wax from their earrings to use as earplugs. But my favorite theory for earrings is that they covered the cost of burial. Earrings made of silver or gold would be worth enough to pay for a sailor’s funeral if his body washed ashore. Some pirates even engraved the name of their home port on the inside of the earrings so that their bodies could be sent to their families for a proper burial. If a pirate died on a ship, the earrings would help to cover the cost of transporting the body home so that he wouldn’t be buried at sea or on foreign soil.

As swashbuckling as the pirate’s reputations, they were usually more clever than daring. Pirates tried, when possible, to become involved in battle with only one ship at a time. A lot/most valuable ships traveled with protective convoys. The deterrent a convoy provided was usually effective — so much so that smaller un-protected ships would follow in the wake of larger convoys to benefit from the convoys protection.

As strange as it may seem, and even though there were women pirates, pirates were afraid of women. Women were considered very bad luck on board all seafaring vessels as they were thought to bring bad things down on the ship. It’s possible that they just caused fighting amongst the pirates on board. 

And since everyone knows that guacamole (not really guacamole, but avocados) was discovered by pirates, I won’t even address that subject.

So we’ll be headin’ out for our annual rounds tonight, probably into the wee hours, knocking on doors in the neighborhood, yelling “arr scurvy dog, I be needin to sell a pint or two of grog.” That’s always one of the highlights of the day. No matter how you celebrate, Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!
— 30 —

We were watching Jeopardy the other night and there was a question about fishing that I knew the answer to — Claire was amazed that I knew it. I’ve never been a big fan of fishing. Actually, I kind of enjoy fishing, I just don’t like to catch fish. Well I really don’t mind catching fish, I just don’t know what to do with them after they’re caught. I don’t like to clean or cook them. But after all that, I do like to eat fish — just about all kinds.

The first time I ever went fishing was with my granddad — when I was about four or five years old. There weren’t really very many places to fish around Maysville, Oklahoma. There were a few lakes, but they weren’t readily accessible. My grandad took me fishing in the Washita river. My grandad didn’t have a car, so we walked to the river — maybe a two mile walk. A long walk for a little kid, but at 4 or 5, you have no concept of distance. My dad was never a fisherman and thought us going fishing was kind of silly, but it was quality time spent with my granddad. My dad, as a joke, once sent the game warden out to get us because we didn’t have a fishing license. It was a funny idea, but my granddad knew that he was old enough and I was young enough that neither one of us needed a license. 

According to the dictionary, a fish story is an exaggerated or incredible story, so my ‘fish story’ probably doesn’t qualify for a true fish story. When Dave was little, I often read some bedtime stories from a book of Aesop Fables. I’m not sure I remember all the details, but one was about a fisherman that had no luck fishing one day, but caught a very small fish. The fisherman was about to put it in his basket, when the fish said, “Spare me Mr. Fisherman — I’m so small it’s not worth while to take me home. When I get bigger, I’ll make you a much better meal.” But the fisherman put the little fish in his basket, saying, “however small you may be, you are better than nothing at all. 
The moral of the story is a little thing in hand is worth more than a great thing in expectation.

So even though my story about fishing doesn’t really qualify as “fish story,” it’s the only one I have. But everyone should know how to fish… as the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he can eat for a couple of days, but teach him to fish, and he can sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
— 30 —

Over the years I’ve had a lot of unique, interesting friends. One of those friends was Gerald (Jerry) Siemienkiewicz. You may think, from his last name, that he was a character. To call Jerry a character would be a gross understatement. I’ve never known anyone like him — he was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, as well as the kindest and most generous. I can’t think of anyone that didn’t like Jerry. He was certainly unique and marched to his own drum, but never to the detriment of anyone. Sadly, Jerry became a ’Silent key’ (a term a communications organization uses for eternal rest) in 1999. 

Stories about Jerry could fill several volumes, but here’s one that I particularly like….
We were in Saigon and most days wound up traveling “up country” to some pretty desolate and deserted, dirty places. Even though he had a maid in Saigon, I’m pretty sure Jerry’s clothes were never ironed and many of them were in need of repair. His shoes were pretty much on their last mile — the soles were coming off and were held on by duct tape. But Jerry, always concerned about others, traded shoes with a beggar on the street. The beggar’s shoes were no more than soles of old flip-flops tied to his feet with string. But Jerry gave him his shoes (such as they were)  and wore the beggar’s shoes. He rode a motorcycle that didn’t have any fenders and almost every shirt he had had a “mud streak” up the back because of the lack of a rear fender. At least two or three days a week we had to go into the embassy…. needless to say, Jerry never went unnoticed. 

One day, our boss called Jerry in and told him that he could never ask for a better employee, but the fact that he was representing the U.S. Government in a foreign country, even if a war was going on, he should look more professional — especially when he had work in the embassy.
 Jerry looked at him, and said that he was absolutely correct — he had just never given it much thought, but he should look more professional, and he assured our boss that he’d make an effort to present a more professional appearance. 

The next day, Jerry arrived at the embassy — his clothes still looked like he’d slept in them, he still wore the beggar’s “shoes,” still badly needed a haircut, and still had the mud streak up his back. But — he had a slide rule in his shirt pocket.
— 30 —

I was reading earlier today and and ran across this quote: “You are not what you think you are, you are not what others think you are but you are what you think others think you are.” I thought it was interesting and later I thought about it again. I guest it’s all a matter of perception — a kind of imbalance of what is and what we think it is. Who I think I am may not agree with what those around me see. There’s a lot of me’s… the me that Claire sees, the me that my kids see, the me that my relatives see, the me that acquaintances see, that strangers see, and so on. 

I guess I have too much time on my hands lately, but that got me to thinking about perception…. reading and watching the news, I’ve concluded that people choose what they want to see because it’s easier to see what they want. After a couple of weeks of watching the political conventions, and listening to a lot of different people speak, I’d say that many people (maybe most of us) often think we are better at something than we are. 

There is something called the Dunning Kruger effect. It states that the more incompetent people are, the less they are aware of their incompetence. The effect is named after David Dunning of the University of Michigan and Justin Kruger of New York University. During their research, Dunning and Kruger gave their test subjects a series of cognitive tasks and asked them to estimate how well they did. Most of the participants guessed their performance more or less realistically and a few people underestimated themselves. But the quarter of people that scored worst on the tests, wildly exaggerated their cognitive abilities. I’d say that an embellished self-image isn’t a bad thing, it’s probably a good thing. But to carry it to the extreme isn’t just enhancing self-image, it becomes self-deception. 

From what I’ve read and remember from a couple of psychology courses in school, the tendency for self -deception stems from a desire to impress others. To appear convincing, we must convince ourselves of our capabilities and truthfulness. Most successful manipulators are usually “quite full of themselves.”

I suppose my mind went down this track recently because the speeches I listened to during the political conventions didn’t contain a lot of substance — most were just perceptions — of the speaker or their party. So it seems like what’s becoming more important is perception. Even if someone takes the initiative to attempt to make people understand an issue, don’t expect them to simply compromise their views or bias. It’s easier to frame the world in a simplified perception — it takes more effort to not only acknowledge complexities, but to accept them. 

Back to the quote I started with… there’s the me I think I am, there’s the many versions of me those around me think I am, and there’s the me I think others think I am. I guess that’s true of all of us, but once again I think Dr. Seuss got it right when he said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
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