Empirical Monotony and Loss

Yesterday work started and ended with quality time with the political leaders from work – in other words a day of pain.  The morning session wasn’t bad as we confirmed some important decisions I needed for January.  The afternoon session was a regional transit conference at Union Station in Worcester.

The Procurement Lecture/Impalement Stake

We spent two hours listening to federal bureaucrats explain the important aspects of federal procurement policies.  I think sitting on an impalement stake might be a little more painful, but I’m not sure.  This was followed by a cocktail reception (open bar!) and then a dinner in the vast Union Station hall.  My excellent boss was a little fired up by the time dinner rolled around and provided all the entertainment needed as a series of really untalented speakers paraded by the microphone.  I always like spending time at Union Station where the restoration is so impressive.  It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago there were trees growing up through a ruined roof where we had dinner.

Dinner in the Hall

During the happy hour I spent a little bit of time with a couple of young marines who were there for a Toys for Tots collection.  They were literally half the age of everybody else there and seemed a little anxious at forcing their way to the bar. I suffered no such compunction and kept them supplied throughout.  It is so cool to see the transformation in young people when they put on a military uniform (I’m guessing it has more to do with the training they go through to earn the uniform – just saying).

I finished up spending time with some future marines by finishing Christopher Nuttall’s book, The Empire Corps.   I kind of stumbled onto Nuttall thanks to Amazon.com which recommended him after I bought a bunch of books authored by my former drinking/singing lieutenancy friend, Tom Kratman.  Tom even appears in Nuttall’s book as a revered major general of the Terran Marine Corps.

This was military science fiction depicting a vast human galactic empire on the verge of falling into anarchy thousands of years in the future.  The sole institution above the dissolution is the Terran Marine Corps.  A small unit of the marines is dispatched to a backwater planet where they fight bandits, politicians and rebels.

I really enjoyed this read (it helped me get through the procurement lecture) as Nuttall makes some very interesting comparisons to current political forces at work in our society and pushing them a couple millennia forward.  The battle scenes and the reactions of the individual troops involved were visceral and extremely well done.  Nuttall appears to be pretty prolific with a number of books in this series, I’ve already started on the second (it was a long procurement class).

You've Earned the Rest

While standing at the bar with its ubiquitous sports shows on multiple TVs I noticed Nelson Mandela’s picture being flashed up repeatedly.  I didn’t think this could be good news.  I got close enough to confirm my fears that this giant had passed.  Africa has been such a cesspool of corruption, vice, and just flat evil since the colonial powers were justifiably pushed out (think Zimbabwe and Mugabe) that Mandela’s life stood in even starker contrast.

He was the kind of leader that reinforced my belief in the basic goodness inherent in most people.  I am still stunned at the mostly peaceful transition he accomplished so late in his own life for South Africa, after his decades long imprisonment.  The wealth of his spirit cannot be understated.  Hope is what he meant to me, hope that we as a species will eventually be able to overcome our own urge to destroy each other and perpetuate hate.  We’re all a little diminished today but can still bask in the light of words such as these:

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela.