Tomorrow will be my birthday.  I am still here.  In the course of asking myself, “how the hell did I reach this time and place,” I cannot answer in fine detail.  I have to think that shear accident, more than my share of luck has figured into the fact that I am within reach of 73 years on this planet.  Dumb luck, coincidence, good fortune.  I think of our Roman ancestors who had statues, shrines to Fortune.  Fortune was female, changeable, unpredictable, fickle, beyond prediction.  At the inception of an endeavor of import the Romans believed it was prudent to recite a prayer, to pay one’s respects to Fortuna.  I have been in such a position more times than I am able to remember.  There have been errors in judgment aplenty, — but I’ve been lucky.  My mistakes were not fatal.

Then I have to give credit to many fellow travelers who have been generous, kind, to offer their support, to offer resources that I happened to need at the time.  I hope that I have reciprocated, “paying it forward” without need to keep score, that attitude of scarcity always interested to “get” rather than to receive, tracking assets and liabilities.

Teachers, all of them have taught me the facts, the symbol system necessary to function in the late 20th century post-WWII world, and now in an early 21st century globalized world.  Languages with vocabularies and a grammar must become familiar, and some mastered if one is to survive, if one is to be lucky to thrive in the one life that one has.  The methods of the sciences come to mind: astrophysics, to ecology.  To observe, carefully looking is prior to thinking.  Then in mathematics are the expressions of logic, how the principle of identity, the principle of contradiction are used to measure, to predict, and to create new tools to improve convenience, to fight disease, to engineer the iphone.  The iphone!  What a world-making, world-destroying fold point in technology.  Las Vegas in your hand, or a google road map to guide one across the country.

I am indebted to teachers, some that I have met through what they have written in books, who’ve taught me the critical importance of semiotics.  Semiotics, a brand or symbol that is imbued with a penumbra of meaning, of palpable connotation, of emotion.  An example, the Starbucks logo for millions around the world conveys the astringent taste of coffee, the mild brace of caffeine, a morning ritual that says “this is indeed a good morning.”  If one has the time to enter a shop with the green logo shining in the window, there’s a feeling of welcome, that it’s ok to stay awhile.  Semiotics has to do with the deep meaning of our signs, those anthropological and sociological dimensions of the way-of-life which we have all inherited.  Symbols have connotations, always changing.

Life is collaboration, a mutual enterprise with many contributors.

More, a great deal more is to be said.  Is this too much for a blog post?

What would you say about your own life?  How would you give account, make sense of what you’ve experienced, sum up your quotient of lived experience among your fellows on this planet?

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This tune will suffice to steady us, a sea-anchor to keep us running with the wind.  I realize this is not a “professional” video, nevertheless it “thunders” with life.

Superstition

By Stevie Wonder

Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders ’bout to fall,
Thirteen-months-old baby broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeah, yeah

Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say,
Very superstitious, the devil’s on his way,
Thirteen-months-old baby broke the lookin’ glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer, superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no