JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 35: What Have These Eyes Seen in the Past 61-Years

JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 35: What Have These Eyes Seen in the Past 61-Years

After my 61st birthday and while immersed in Apollo 11 nostalgia I comment about events that I’ve experienced over the course of my 60-plus years life, things ranging from Space to Music to Religion, to Technology to Family. What events have your experienced that you haven’t reflected on lately.

MP3 Version: https://jbbsfinalthoughts.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/jbbsfinalthoughts_e035_what-have-these-eyes-seen-in-the-past-61-years.mp3

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Resources:

• music: Social Blindness – 22K by Smart Sound Music
• All images and screen grabs by Joe Bustillos ©2019 except where noted
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1
• https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/classroom-copes-columbia-disaster
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster?wprov=sfti1
• Vatican II engraving, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/index.htm
• Wright Brothers in Flight (2009). EngineersClubDayton, Published on Jun 9, 2009. ©2009 Martel Art. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3beVhDiyio
• Gemini video: NASA Remembers Astronaut John Young, Moonwalker and First Shuttle Commander. Original size video (URL): images-assets.nasa.gov/video/NHQ_2018_0106_NASA Remembers Astronaut John Young, Moonwalker and First Shuttle Commander/NHQ_2018_0106_NASA Remembers Astronaut John Young, Moonwalker and First Shuttle Commander~orig.mp4. Date Created: 2018-01-06
• Gemini-Titan (GT)-6 – Gemini 6 of 7 – Space Photography – Outer Space. Full resolution (URL): images-assets.nasa.gov/image/S65-63194/S65-63194~orig.jpg. NASA ID: S65-63194. Date Created: 1965-12-17
• Astronaut Edward White during first EVA performed during Gemini 4 flight, Full resolution (URL): images-assets.nasa.gov/image/S65-34635/S65-34635~orig.jpg. NASA ID: S65-34635. Date Created: 1965-06-03
• PORTRAIT – GEMINI 12 PRIME CREW. Full resolution (URL): images-assets.nasa.gov/image/s66-46952/s66-46952~orig.jpg. NASA ID: s66-46952. Date Created: 1966-01-01
• Cross on the Beach “IMG_0770.jpg”by jramspott is licensed under CC BY 2.0
• Manual Typewriter “bike build 168”by fixedgear is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
• AVID Cinema Macintosh, https://www.macintoshrepository.org/16435-avid-cinema
• Challenger Disaster “έκρηξη : explosion via NASA”by dullhunk is licensed under CC BY 2.0
• Starfire Optical Range Photo “Starfire Optical Range Photo”by jrtnatnov is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
• The Beatles on Stage “The Beatles on stage”by azaar94 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
• Introducing the Beatles “Introducing…The Beatles Front Cover”by cloud2013 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Episode Notes:

Birthday (61) recently and current NASA/Apollo nostalgia… comment by Neil Armstrong that only 60-years had passed from first powered-flights by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk to the Apollo program, inspired me to list the things that I’ve seen or experienced in my 61 years being here.

• SPACE:
  • Early NASA launches (on TV) mercury, Gemini and Apollo… some “missions” were launched and done within the same day through the 1960s and early 1970s
  • Launch and landing of the first Space Shuttle (Columbia) in 1980 (on TV)
  • Destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger (on TV) in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.
  • Launch of the last Space Shuttle missions from STS-126 (2008) though STS-135 (2011) live in Florida.
• MUSIC/BEATLES:
  • Saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan live (1964), didn’t remember that they played three-weeks in a row…
  • “Performing” Beatles songs for disbelieving aunts and uncles on grandma’s front porch in San Gabriel (circa 1965)
  • Late night Pre-MTV Don Kirshner’s Rock Show and the Midnight Special music variety show in the 1970s and 1980s
  • Staying up late watching MTV on friend’s cable the night before getting married.
• RELIGION:
  • Raised in a conservative Catholic home in the 1960s (Vatican II reforms), Dad raised Protestant put his religion on the back burner for the sake of family unity… early experiences that dads don’t go to church…
  • Hippy/Jesus-movement in Southern California in the early 1970s
  • The Catholic Charismatic Movement in Southern California in the 1970s
  • The Contemporary Christian music scene/Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa Saturday night concerts (performed as opening act once circa 1982)
  • Became Agnostic after my divorce in the late 1980s, revisited my faith in the troublesome 2000s, and walked away again in the late 2000s.
• TECHNOLOGY:
  • Learning to type on manual typewriter in 1972 during 7th grade summer school (strong fingers would be helpful playing guitar and giving neck/shoulder rubs many, many years later)
  • 1970s 8mm film editing, analog video (VHS) editing 1980s-1990s, digital video editing on early Macs and iMacs from the 1990s to now.
  • Using technology to create curriculum materials (booklets, posters, quizzes) in the 1990s to literally teaching university courses online in the late 2000s.
• FAMILY:
  • The birth of my granddaughter, Elena, in 2005.
  • My dad  being amazingly healthy in his mid-70s, then the quick decline and death in his early 80s due to respiratory issues.
  • My “force of nature” older sister rapid decline, in part to suffering several years from untreated symptoms similar to my CIDP illness .
  • Things left undone by the passing of several talented family members and friends inspiring me to refocus my energies on things that I continually say that I want to do and trying to have a more realistic view of what to do in the time I have left.

Most of us are so busy dealing with unending demands of life from day to day, moment to moment that it’s difficult to have any sense of accomplishment or even peace about the how we’ve lived our lives… I’m certain that family and friends who are no longer here were just going through the motions right up to the last moment with no thought beyond the moment. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just that, given the truckload of opportunities that I see that I’ve been lucky enough to have, I would want this life to mean more than skidding sideways to my final destination and lamenting, “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m well aware that I’m damn lucky to be here at this point in human history, living in this very flawed country with incredible possibility springing forth on a daily/hourly basis. For that reason and the others listed above, I’m still looking for and engaged in my life’s mission beyond Margaritaville and this thing called retirement. That said, I’m not anticipating chasing disruptive 5-year-olds or explaining myself to arrogant pre-teens who believe that they’re all that for the rest of my life. I think I’ve earn some respite from that…

What about you, what “escape” plan are you hatching for yourself and your loved ones? What wonders have you seen over your many years that you haven’t thought about lately because you’re too damn busy to be bothered?

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