mulberryshoots

I look at everything that happens in my life or around it or what I randomly see as “data” gathered in a scientific experiment. What’s missing sometimes is the “hypothesis” part of the experiment–the “what am I trying to find out?” As I think about this process, it’s probably fair to say that it’s an inverse kind of experiment. That my looking at or listening to data then “shows” me what the hypothesis might have been. Much of the time, the conclusion was not hypothesizable but something unexpectedly interesting and novel that lay outside what I might have conjectured to begin with. So it’s a kind of rolling experiment, gathering data, dare I call them ‘stones’?

The mysticism part is strong. I looked up the word in wikipedia and couldn’t get through the myriad of definitions. I find it’s much easier to live it than to talk about it. When I look back,(“eggs in a basket“) I think that mystical energy grew in my life when I surrendered and gave up my fear to a higher power. Although I continued to apply myself to resolving the burdens of my life at the time, there were many things that occurred later, outside of my control that fell my way (“life is long“, “stirring the pot“.)

Last Sunday, with no garages open anywhere, we had car trouble and had a long way to drive in order to reach home. During this uncertain journey, I silently asked the helpers to ensure we would be unharmed and be taken care of as best the circumstances might allow. Sure enough, just as the car’s electrical system failed altogether, we were able to safely exit the highway and coast to a nearby gas station. A brand-new flatbed rescue truck from Triple AAA appeared in less than 20 minutes to drive us home, 40 miles away. The tow was covered under our AAA “Plus” plan, something I had added just a few weeks earlier, thanks to a conversation with one of G.’s workmen.

During my career in biotech managing scientists, I had a chance to observe how they think, draw conclusions, act on what the data might be or not be. Many times they were wrong. Sometimes they were right. In my little crucible, there is no right or wrong. Just the raw data of my life. I want to thank that person for the observation about my process because I think he nailed it.