Background. Biases. Restart.

Have been away from blogging and working with short form social media. Namely Twitter... a forum and format has its pros and cons. Like Twitter immediacy and like the wide swath it seems to cast... at least for tech and economic news and tidbits. There is little bandwidth to indicate "who you are" on Twitter. Background often is made evident by the stream of one's posts... how happy or sad.. how positive or negative... where one's biases stand.

Privacy and humility would generally keep from disclosing.... but that is what it is to be in the public forum. It is about vulnerability and disclosure. So here is some context:

Believe the world is a generally positive place on a trajectory for better and good.

Grew up in Nova Scotia. Scottish and English ancestry. Fair share of enlisted Canadian military service in my family, though it bypassed my father and grandfather.... which is in some part why I am here. We are all the progeny of survivors - whether by luck or skill - and that biases our world view - something to think about. My immediate forbearers were farmers, foresters, millwrights and heavy equipment operators (construction trucks, tractors and bulldozers).

Grew up living in a trailer, and partially on the move, though my parents stayed put for me to stay at a consistent grade and high school. My family gave me much in the way of practical and moral compass and grounding... golden rule and trade and farm/forest skills. Learned to handle and repair farm and forest gear including firearms.  I was loved, nurtured and had a happy childhood. Which is not to say we had everything. We were sometimes hungry. We generally bought second hand. We were always on a tight budget. But living off the land, and the goodwill of family and community, always got us through.

We were cash poor but grace rich. Though we had our own sorts of family tragedies... including addiction and untimely death. But let that stand as a weak reflection to the lives of refugees, orphans and genocide survivors... We ALL live in a heaven compared to Seita and Setsuko in the Grave of the Fireflies. Have little patience with entitled attitudes otherwise.

Have worked as part of a crew in farm fields - hay, berries, husbandry, repair... hard hot/freezing honest work that gives one calluses.

Blessed in school (whether knack or persistence). But was only able to get through college because of scholarships and grants, and the goodwill and structure of the Canadian secondary education system. Was able to go to graduate school in Physics at Cornell through NSERC (Canada) funding.

Lived in a world, at least seemingly, largely devoid of criminality and corruption, and blessedly little bureaucracy. Will gladly pay taxes and fees to cover services, just do not make me do the paperwork to figure out what they will be. 

Not the first in my family through graduate education. Uncle Donald Putnam. My cousin Andrew was an MD.

Thankful for many friends through out the years. Though always sad when they drift away. But this is often how it must be. Change is the only constant. Thankful for past and ongoing opportunities to learn. Learning is my thing.... like my son Charlie, and my daughter Anna... no wait.. "purple" is her thing *grin*. And thankful for my family.

Try hard not to blame. Try hard not to remember that not everything is someone's fault. Some things are within our control. Some things are outside of our control. Sort of derivative from the Serenity Prayer.  And with that... back on to what has been going on lately...