One of those days where your synapses buzz

I had a fascinating conversation with someone I have not talked with for 30 years. He holds an important role in my life. I made the very dumb mistake of graduating in a recession (so dumb, don’t do that). I finally got a job slightly before going homeless, but the job wasn’t to start for a while, and he and his wife hired me in the interim. He was an old climate change expert then, so now he is an older climate change expert. They made a major impression on me and I think of them often. It turns out, I made an impression on him too. 

We spoke today and he made reference to his learning something that I already knew. The last five years have been horrible and traumatic for all decent people but it was harder on him than it was on me because I already had a negative view of humanity and he ..... believed in goodness. The last five years he learned that people were worse than he ever imagined, and that a higher percentage of them were dramatically worse than he ever imagined, that they have always been this way, and they will always be this way. His wife believes that there is biology involved in people hating people who are different and while he never believed that before, he is forced to confront that the evidence does not support his position. 

I asked what I had said to reveal to him that I had such a negative view of humanity and he said he hadn’t realized it extended to humanity in general but that he could sense that I “could perceive the dark, negative aspect of American politics and culture.” 

I don’t remember the conversations, they were 30 years ago, but I am amazed that he did, and that he retained them all this time.

Then we went to work as he explained his current brilliant scheme to help make the world a better place. His idea is brilliant. He’s enlisted some excellent minds to help develop it. It is also very complicated so I’ll spare you, but I am hoping to broker his conversation with my agency. Sometimes you are presented with such intellectually exciting ideas that your synapses buzz.


Working at home, looking out the window while talking to him, I got to see the first snowflakes fall. We might get a couple of inches but, after hearing what they were projecting for Irish I’m just laughing at it. There is now a Maryland state of emergency in anticipation of slick roads. It was another great day to not have to commute.