The Cause and effect of human history

By Dan Barber

When I look in the mirror I see that my nose and ears have grown as I’ve aged. It would make me feel better about it if my sense of smell increased rather than decreased and my sense of hearing increased rather than decreased, but no… when did cause and effect go out the window on that evolutionary question?

Maybe if we humans survive on earth as long as the dinosaurs roamed the globe our kind will improve through the evolutionary process… if our growing intellect, intelligent aliens from another world or an asteroid doesn’t destroy our planet first. If that happens then our colonists on Mars will start a heated debate on whether it was God, humans, aliens, or an asteroid that destroyed earth.

If the anthropologists have it right our ancestors climbed out of the mire of ignorance about 200,000 years ago to start the climb on to the evolutionary family tree. From what I’ve read, our forefathers/mothers only started putting down the record of human activity when a clan member decided to spruce up the cave with paintings of animals and other creatures. This activity may have been brought on by the hope of improving the hunt or from ingesting some hallucinogenic berries. Then about 6,000 years ago someone figured out that the doodling they were doing in the mud with a stick could be letters, language and symbols they could use to express an idea to other members of their tribe just by drying out the mud doodles to show them. I personally believe that all of these human activities have caused science and religion to butt heads.

Some orthodox theologians believe God created humans about 6,000 years ago. Maybe they confuse the beginning of human life with the advent of the written record of the human experience. If this is the case it would be much easier for the orthodox to make their case for divine creation by simply saying “metaphorically speaking…” before making any bold statement about what God created. If those believers try to argue their religious points as fact with scientists then they will lose every time. On the other hand when some scientists state that all knowledge is gained through observation or through the use of laws of nature, laws of physics or through experiments demonstrating cause and effect. I would ask them who created the laws of nature, who created the laws of physics and the big one, “what or who created the big bang?”

A couple of years ago I had a conversation about faith with one of my granddaughters when she asked me what I believed… Did I believe in God or Science?

I explained, and wrote in a blog afterwards, that I believed in both because I feel that science cannot exist without God, and God can’t exist without science. 

At about that same time a news story was broadcast about some physicists working on trying to recreate the Higgs Boson also known as the “God particle”… or the spark that science claims created the universe in a “Big Bang.”  The scientists stated that they discovered the particle… but couldn’t really see the spark because it was rediscovered in a mathematical formula… we just had to believe they were right, in other words we just had to have “faith” that their discovery was real.

On one of my favorite TV programs, one of the physicist characters told his physicist roommate that his mathematical formula only worked because he had to create several other universes to make it work.

“Faith,” a belief in something, or maybe the hope, that something exists without physical proof. I was told in my Sunday school class when I was a child that no one could see God, but we know that He exists, we just have to accept Him and have faith.

I have a conversation with God everyday. I thank Him for allowing me to wake each morning so I can have another day of doing what I really enjoy.  I thank Him for the beauty of the Universe that he created from the wonderful “God Particle.”  I thank Him for creating this great planet for all his earthly creatures to live on. I thank Him for the conversations that I can have with my grandchildren who have the faith that their grandfather is mostly right in what he says. I thank God for the laughter of my grandchildren when they laugh at my stories and jokes. I thank God that I can still learn from the wisdom of my family and friends.

Yes, I believe that God and Science are inseparable… without one it is not possible to have the other. And yes, metaphorically speaking, God has a sense of humor; why else would He give old people bigger noses and ears without the added benefit of better smell and sound?

Where have all the memories gone?

Dan Barber

I often hear people exclaim, “Back in the good old days…” I want to ask, what was so good about them? Back in the day…I recall that I was extremely self-conscious; totally unsure of myself; awkward and really shy to the point where I found it difficult to even speak to anyone. I don’t think I had an issue with self-confidence because I remember being full of hope that my future was going to be adventurous and I was immortal.

I’m sure most of my high school classmates at John A. Rowland High School were suffering the same issues with self-image that I was, however, they seemed to be much braver then I. It seemed that they took the chance to have fun, to speak to others, to make friends, some of which turned out to be life-long friendships. The biggest regret that I have from my childhood is that I should have been less afraid to make a fool of myself and to have more fun.

I enjoy listening to people reminisce about the experiences they had in their lives, I even enjoyed writing about the adventures of people I interviewed over the years because it gave me the opportunity to experience those adventures with them even if it was just by proxy. Today when I attend social gatherings it is fun for me to watch others in their easy conversation with their old friends, but it also gives me that pang of regret that the friends I made in my life are pretty much just acquaintances because the only thing we had in common was our military service… and we might have only been stationed together for a short period of time…our community was not a place, but a state of mind, a group of people who were located in a strange place with different cultural norms then our own.

When I retired from the Navy I returned to my hometown of Rowland Heights, Calif., mostly because I thought that I missed the place. I quickly discovered that I didn’t miss the place at all, what I missed was my youth and the friends I had played ball with, went to school with or just hung out with. Rowland Heights had become a strange place filled with lots of people that I had nothing in common with. It seemed that the span of years and distance had made me a stranger in my own mind and in my own hometown. When I again moved away from there to, Twentynine Palms, Calif., where I had never visited in my life, I discovered that I had come home. Most of my new neighbors were in the military, or they were military veterans or military retirees that I had never met but felt that I had known my entire working life.

I guess the “Good old days” are in fact just good memories we are reluctant to give up.

Saturday Morning Post: What’s wrong with being old?

Saturday Morning Post: What’s wrong with being old?: By Dan Barber From all of the television commercials I see proclaiming the latest “anti-aging” face cream, juice, dietary supplements o...

What’s wrong with being old?

By Dan Barber

From all of the television commercials I see proclaiming the latest “anti-aging” face cream, juice, dietary supplements or surgical/non-surgical procedures to “turn back the clock” makes me think that there might be something wrong with growing old.

Let’s face it getting old is incurable! Once this fact is accepted, the more life can be enjoyed. For example, you can really tell young people what you think of them when they are acting dumb… they will consider you just a grumpy old person. I think the older I get the less I can tolerate bull stool. People need to understand that I speak from experience because I used to create a lot of bull stool that my elders thought was stupid!

My brother, Rodney, jokingly tells complainers who grouse about something hurting them to go out in the back yard and smear dog poop on it which would immediately cure their “owey”.  The problem with this sound advice would be a gullible young person who would actually go out in the back yard in search of fresh droppings! I wonder if a healthy dose of bull stool can cure age related issues.

Once you are old you can guilt-trip your children or grandchildren into taking care of the chores you should be doing. But don’t overdo this age benefit because once they catch on you might be headed for the assisted living facility/nursing home.

Another perk of old-age is we can actually take naps whenever we want…but don’t let anyone catch you napping while sitting behind the wheel of your car while at a traffic light, you will then lose your driving privileges and no longer be able to cuss traffic lights that turn red for no apparent reason, because your fellow bus passengers might take offense at your foul language!

Sleeping in every morning is an option for retirees. Most people look forward to this luxury during their commute to work. However, now that I’m retired, I can’t sleep in. After 50 years of rolling out of bed every morning to head off to work has broken my body clock. This might be the reason for all of the naps I now require.

Fashion is no longer an issue for old men. Young people might laugh at the sight of them with their pants hiked up above the belly, but the alternative would make them shudder if the old man wore his pants below the belly and suffered a wardrobe malfunction.

When I was a young person I used to sit for what seemed like hours politely listening to the sea stories of old retired sailors. I always thought that I would never bore a young person with my sea stories…my recollections aren’t at all boring. I know this because my wife often comes into my den to ask, “What are you laughing at, and who are you talking too?”

The Quality of Life

By Dan Barber

Since I have been retired I have had a lot of time to just sit and observe people and things, read, watch TV or just think about stuff. Sometimes I just quietly reminisce about my life.

Thanks to a book that I am currently reading by Dr. Charles Krauthammer “Things That Matter” has triggered this blog.

The guy who interviewed me and hired me for my final job was a Navy Medical Corps Captain who served as the Executive Officer at the Navy Hospital where I spent my final 20 year career with the Navy as a civilian employee. He was considered to be very scary and eccentric and many people didn’t care much for his management style, he was always on the go and had a thing about brushing his teeth several times a day… sometimes when I had to brief him about important issues, the briefing took place in the men’s head (Navy speak for men’s restroom) while he brushed his teeth. He also had the habit of constantly walking around the command and would walk up to a civilian or military staff member at the hospital and just ask them, “What do you do here?” That can be very disarming to an unsuspecting person. He undoubtedly knew what the person he asked was supposed to be doing, but he was just using “mind judo” to motivate the individual into thinking about doing a better job in what they were paid to do… and by using this in your face approach he always wanted to make sure that his breath was minty fresh.

Since then I have heard people use the term “Leadership by intrusion.” I much prefer my former XO’s method of leadership. My experience with this boss was probably the best learning experience I could have ever hoped for. I learned that he didn’t have much regard for the politics of command, his goal was helping patients and making sure those who he came into contact with made the best of themselves in their environment… by making sure their goals were the same as his, helping and serving people.

The Navy often gives people extra duties, called collateral duties, beyond their primary jobs. For a Navy Pilot in a Squadron their collateral duty might be as the Administrative Officer, or Legal Officer or Division Officer or a combination of all of those duties.

In the case of my boss and Executive Officer of the hospital his “collateral duty” was to see patients as a Family Medicine Doctor and to serve as the Chairman of the Quality of Life Council at our “parent” command.

Because I was the Public Affairs Officer and special assistant to this Executive Officer he assigned me the collateral duty of being his facilitator for the Quality of Life Council. I suppose it was his “mind judo” to motivate me into thinking about doing a better job which in fact turned into the most fun and rewarding 20-year job I have ever had. We had long talks about Quality of Life and what we could do to improve people’s perception of a dusty desert Marine Corps command and to improve their lives while stationed here. We even considered hiring a forensic psychologist to help us find answers to our questions. I discovered that to define Quality of Life was impossible because everyone is an individual with different backgrounds and interests that no amount of money can provide one answer to the question of “What is quality of life, and how can we make it happen.”

But because of the leadership and programs this one Navy Captain initiated along with those of the many individuals who have followed I have witnessed the blossoming of a command that was once thought of as a dead end into one that many people now request assignment to because they consider it to be career enhancing and a joy to live and work there.

With this man’s foresight and encouragement, we were able to convince the base to put in sidewalks from the base housing area to the hospital and main side of the base where mothers could push strollers without having to traverse the streets or desert sand. We were able to convince the state of California to move the Women’s, Infant, and Children’s (WIC) office 25 miles closer to the base because a majority (75 percent) of their clientele was young military families. We were also able to convince the local public transportation agency that their ridership would increase if they started the buses running earlier in the mornings so people could make it from town to work on time. We also convinced them that it would be a good thing for their riders to have well marked shade-protected bus stops with posted schedules available rather then a sign indicating “bus stop” nailed to a telephone pole. These changes not only improved the Quality of Life for the base residents, but also for the civilian community outside the base as well. Those were the easy things to get done.

We were never able to get a Big Box Discount store built outside the gate, but within the past 20-years a large high-end modern Post Exchange was built to replace the smaller store. A larger Commissary store was also built to replace the smaller Commissary. In time most if not all of the old base housing units have been torn down and replaced with new housing units with community swimming pools and teen centers, including hi-rise air-conditioned barracks and shaded parking garages for those barracks residents to use. A barracks for the hospital’s enlisted staff was built and occupied not long after my original boss had transferred. Just recently a sidewalk was built from that barracks to the hospital so the staff wouldn’t have to walk in the street or desert sand to work and home each day.

This Navy Captain who had no interest in the politics of Navy command was promoted to Rear Admiral and then retired. I don’t know if the actions this Quality of Life Council, that I played a very small part in, resulted in all of the changes in the past 20 years. But I do know the wish list we put together has come to fruition!

A place does not make the community… people make the community.

                                                                                    --Dan Barber

#Technology is making driving safer by taking control away from drivers… again

By Dan Barber

I have just learned that new technology will make cars able to talk to one another to avoid accidents on the roads.

But, what if it leads to noise pollution as in increased honking, cars screaming expletives at other cars and the mass screeching of tires on cars trying to avoid a “dumb” old car cutting them all off?

An option on these new smart cars will be a giant finger that can pop up from the roof of the communicating car.

When I was in the fifth grade I read a story that in the future cars would be able to drive themselves. Passengers could just sit back and read, take a nap or now text or talk on their cell phones. At the time I found that unrealistic and still do.

It would make more sense to install fast moving conveyor belts for people to ride on like they do at some airports… but even those can cause accidents. I’ve seen people running down those conveyor belts at airports trying to get to their gate quicker and tripping over the baggage that an old person set down next to them. Also, as one of those old people I now walk slower then the airport conveyor belts and some escalators move … I have to take a running start before I can use them, and that can be a funny picture to a young person.

For nearly a half a century Los Angeles and surrounding suburbs enjoyed the use of electric rail cars to move them into, out of and around Los Angeles. Then some “brilliant” (oil company and parking lot owner connected) community planners invented freeways so people could conveniently drive their personal vehicles into, out of and around Los Angeles. Then a half a century later some “brilliant” (environmental activists connected) planners thought it would be a better idea to establish rail lines to move people into, out of and around Los Angeles! Add to this mix the “brilliant” (Silicon technology connected) planners coming up with an idea so drivers can text and talk on communications devices, eat and drink while safely riding in an electric vehicle that can talk to other electric vehicles while traveling into, out of and around Los Angeles.

The new highlight of the nightly “Eye Witless News” cast from Los Angeles won’t be the high speed car chase, it will be the aerial video of a person suffering from road rage beating the crap out of their own “smart, electric” car next to the 101 freeway.

Thinking outside the box

By Dan Barber

During the last 20 years of my working life the term “thinking outside the box” was a favorite phrase used by many managers to encourage people to come up with new ideas.

Now that I’m retired I need to get my head out of the box… or at least the flat screen TV because the old box had to be retired when it could no longer be repaired. I now pay a cable provider an ever increasing subscription for TV, Internet, and phone service. Because of all those services I get deluged with advertisements advising me that I am probably paying too much for those services… they are right! I also get fliers in the mail from my own cable provider offering a great deal if I “come back!”

I also read tech tips from online news services that with new technology I can get all of those services much cheaper than I’m currently paying. However, I find it difficult to understand the phrases or terms used to describe that new technology. The English language is hard enough for people to learn if it isn’t their first language. Now techies are adding to that difficulty by adding new meanings to old words… backup, server, crash, bits, etc… get my drift?

As an old “Boomer” aka “Baby Boomer” who has recently retired, all of this technology really makes me paranoid. I worry about paying too much money for something that a cable sales person sold me. I worry that the young man at the big box store who sold me a “smart” TV provided me with an appliance in my home that is much too complicated for me to understand how to use properly… I worry about people being able to watch me watch TV, so I no longer sit around on the couch in my underwear watching TV… I worry about the people who are supposed to be protecting my privacy (the government) is actually partnering with Internet/phone/cable providers to eavesdrop on my life… I worry that government agents will come knocking on my door when I gripe about the moron politicians who are pretending to “work for us” in our state or federal capitol. I do like GPS and the lady robot who gives me directions, without an attitude, when I’m lost in the desert… and because I am not a criminal I don’t worry about the satellites being able to track my current location on the planet at any given time.

While I’m still lucid enough to think outside the box I would like to offer up an idea for a smart young person who needs to move out of Mom and Dad’s house. Why don’t you start a business providing an in-home technology evaluation geared for old people? Or local Senior Service Center’s can hire someone’s grand kid to teach a class on technology. But please be gentle and honest.

Whenever I need help with my technology I just ask one of my grandchildren but sometimes I have to remind them that Santa can see them sighing and rolling their eyes when Grandpa is asking for their help.