The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express. ~ Francis Bacon
Three Questions, April 6, 2025
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
There were a lot of pretty flowers on my walk today, nothing spectacular but the warm weather lately and the sunshine has brought out a lot of flowers.
What did I learn today?
I learned of a very important operation taking place in Brooklyn. Apparently my littlest niece, with several other operatives in running a spy operation. They are spying on her friend’s bullies, who are also apparently spying on them, it’s very complicated. This is a highly complex operation and I was honored to be read in on the various maps, plans and messages of encouragement for her friend.
What made me happy today?
Talking to my brother’s family, my niece and nephews are amazing and as I relayed above I got fully read in on the five year-old’s spy operation.
Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Rev Kane’s Wild Ride: Helpers and Coasters
So it’s been an interesting week on the open heart surgery front. The first part has been a really great thing. I live alone, have no family here am not in any kind of a serious romantic relationship. So that means essentially I’m on my own for rides to the airport, or dealing with medical appointments etc… I’m a pretty independent fellow and I can handle most things on my own. However, open-heart surgery gets a whole lot more complicated than what I normally deal with. This means that I’ll need support to get home from the hospital and while I’m recovering particularly the first week.
First off, I have to greatly thank my assistant Angelica at work, she’s taken over the reigns as the commander of the keep Michael alive and well operation. Also, as the date has approached, and when people have sincerely offered to help I’ve put them on a list. These folks, coordinated by the commander, will help out with rides, checking in on me, taking me to appointments and picking up groceries for me. This is a significant thing to me, these are people I work with, have connected with over the last couple of years but they are truly treating me like family, not sure how much better it gets than that, I’m utterly grateful to them.
The other thing that happened on the wild ride happened this afternoon while I was video chatting with my brother and his family. The phone rang and it was my doctor’s office, which is seriously odd for a Sunday afternoon, and unsurprisingly it wasn’t great news. My surgery is being postponed for three weeks. It’s happening because there are people in the hospital in bad shape that need surgery dates soon or they’ll die. So the upside is of course that I’m fortunate and happy to be healthy enough that my surgery can be put off a couple of weeks.
But this has been a roller coaster. First I thought I’d have surgery, then my cardiologist said no, but lets do one more test, which turned into a meeting with a surgeon, which meant surgery was on. Then my blood sugar was too high and so there was a real chance that it was get delayed. I got my sugar numbers in line and was on schedule for April 15th and now we’ve been pushed off. All you can do is laugh and float with the river, there are some things you just don’t have control over and you have to accept that.
If someone says something about your dad, don’t worry he can fight his own battles. But if someone says anything about me, your mom or your sister, bust em in the mouth. ~ My Granny
Remembering My Granny
So today would have been my Granny’s 100th birthday, she was an incredibly important person in my life, so tonight, re-linking a couple of posts I’d done about her over the years, happy birthday granny. My granny was an honest to goodness hillbilly, lived in a house with dirt floors, slept under cardboard with her siblings on the floor, got her first pair of shoes at age 9 for her first holy communion and got married at sixteen after my grandfather met her climbing in a tree. Hope you enjoy the pieces. ~ Rev Kane
Every viewer is going to get a different thing. That’s the thing about painting, photography, cinema. ~ David Lynch
Three Questions, April 5, 2025
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I saw today?
As a photographer, when I’m walking I’m always looking for an angle, looking for a good shot. Today I found a particularly good angle for a shot up under the ferris wheel on Fisherman’s Wharf.
What did I learn today?
There’s a cloud of water vapor floating together in space, that has 100 trillion times the amount of water as the entire Earth. The fact that this type of large quantity of water available in space, bodes well for future human space travel.
What made me happy today?
I have been on my best eating behavior for six weeks, so for the first time in six weeks today I got a pizza and a coke for lunch and it was absolutely amazing and made me completely happy.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
There were really two things, some beautiful pink flowers on my walk as well as just a gorgeous day looking over the ocean in Pacifica.
What did I learn today?
To prevent digital eye strain, every 20 minutes, take a 20 second break and focus on something 20 feet away.
What made me happy today?
Had a nice long meeting with someone I mentor today, it was a really great conversation. Also, this week was spring break, so for the most part it’s just managers and classified staff on campus. Made me happy that a lot of them came by to chat, they know my name, they were asking about my leave and surgery. I take a lot of pride in treating them as equals, made me happy to see how much they seem to appreciate it.
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Three Questions, April 3, 2025
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
On my walk today as I was walking up on the hill overlooking the ocean I found a flower. It was kind of a fuzzy, bluish orchid that was absolutely gorgeous.
What did I learn today?
Today I reread all of my pre-operation materials and learned a lot about what I need to bring to the hospital, and some of the things I need to be ready for my return home.
What made me happy today?
My blood sugar has been too high and over the last few weeks and today I did my last test before my surgery date, and happily my A1C was low enough that I’m quite sure I’m a go for my surgery date which absolutely makes me happy.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
On my walk as I rounded the corner overlooking the ocean, I saw the most beautiful purple orchid.
What did I learn today?
Researchers at Nanjing University have developed a device to split oxygen from CO2 without extreme heat and pressure, which will absolutely be huge for space exploration.
What made me happy today?
I had several conversations today that demonstrated that people do really care about me. I don’t have a lot of faith in humanity, I gained a small bit back today.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. ~ The Bene Gesserit, (Frank Herbert, Dune)
Rev Kane’s Wild Ride: The Fear
So one of the questions I frequently get about my upcoming surgery is, are you afraid? What people want from me in that moment is some brave statement, or minor fear, so they can say everything will be alright and move on. But that’s not the answer I’ve been giving, because in fact, I’m fucking terrified. Now, the logical Vulcan half of my brain is pretty confident, there is a 95% or better chance that I come through this surgery just fine. I have an excellent surgeon and as I mentioned in my last post I’m very happy with the my health care system. So I have confidence that I’ll come through this fine. I understand the power of positive thinking and visualization and I’ve been envisioning waking up in recovery, the process of recovering and I can see it clearly in my mind.
But I’m also a very thorough planner. So as such I have to plan for if it doesn’t, that’s not an easy thing to do, because it means preparing for my potential imminent death. So I’m working through some arrangements, I’ve completed my will, I’ll be leaving some notes behind for people. I mean, they are going to stop my heart for several hours.
So when people ask me about the surgery and say some vague pleasantry like, I hope it goes well, I usually reply, me too, if not don’t worry about it, I’ll be dead. Some people find this to be macabre humor, others are just completely thrown off. And that’s because we try like hell not to ever think about death, I wish my brain would allow for that. I also wish my brain let me believe in an afterlife, I don’t. So if it’s over, I believe it’s over. So yes, I’m completely terrified at an existential level, but hoping, and even planning on things going well. But it’s a complicated space I’m in right now, and so I write, it’s how I process, and I return to the quote above, and the greatest thing I’ve ever seen written about fear, The Bene Gesserit Litany on Fear, written by the great Frank Herbert.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. ~ The Bene Gesserit, (Frank Herbert, Dune)
Three Questions, April 1, 2025
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
It was watching Senator Booker break Strom Thurmond’s filibuster record time in the senate. Especially beautiful that a black man did it, given Thurmond’s background.
What did I learn today?
One of those incredibly complex connections that I won’t fully get into here. But one of the factors in why American roads are full of big trucks is because of Germany and chicken. That’s right, a tariff on US chicken caused a response by the US in 1964 that led to 25% tariffs on light trucks. So this gave US automakers little competition, so this has led to bigger and more profitable trucks flooded the market.
What made me happy today?
A friend had a meeting on campus, getting time to chat with her made me very happy.
You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
I took a drive to Palo Alto today, the sun on Lake San Andreas was really beautiful.
What did I learn today?
Read a cool paper about the technology used to control sound waves, nearly to the point where they could weave a sound through a crowd to only one single person.
What made me happy today?
Just having a day off, taking it easy, no appointments, nobody wanting anything.
The Ministry of Happiness 