Three Questions, March 27, 2025
What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?
I saw a woman who had just received a flower delivery. The look on her face as she read the card was the most beautiful thing I encountered today.
What did I learn today?
Today I read an article about accelerating wound healing with electricity.
What made me happy today?
The smell of shredded Eucalyptus tree bark after the rain.
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
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?
Found some really pretty flowers on my walk today even though it was grey, cloudy day.
What did I learn today?
That there is new technology to give holograms the illusion of being able to be felt by touch. They use various technologies including air jets or ultrasound waves to provide the illusion.
What made me happy today?
A day with no scheduled meetings, now I ended up having several meetings but rarely does my calendar at work have a day with no meetings on it.
It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. ~ Frederick Douglas
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?
The most beautiful thing I encountered were my little friends, the kids from the Child Development Center stopped by on their walk to say hi. They even got to see an excavator today!
What did I learn today?
An incredibly sad thing, there’s a sperm whale that is completely alone. Her vocal calls are at a frequency that other whales can’t hear. So while she calls, no one ever responds. Given how intelligent whales are, this poor animal must be damn near insane
What made me happy today?
Oh lots to be happy about, another really nice day, another good blood sugar number and chatting with my little friends.
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can [and] do read worthwhile books. ~ W.E.B. Du Bois
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?
The most beautiful thing I encountered today was a hummingbird buzzing around a bush of pretty flowers.
What did I learn today?
I learned that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland after a boat trip in which he entertained his friend’s children, including Alice, and then she asked him to write it down.
What made me happy today?
More good blood sugar numbers today, a new low, not sure it will be enough to keep from getting my surgery delayed a month, but it’s the best my numbers have ever been, really happy to have a great and supportive doctor, Dr. Jones rocks.
Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere. ~ Emma Smith
One of the ways I visualize our one way trip in life is to think of it like a river. You start in the headwaters in a tiny little stream, and bit by bit you move down stream. Pretty soon little streams flow into other little streams and then bigger ones until finally you end up in the main channel of a huge river until the end of your journey.
What I want to talk about tonight though, is how we float down that river. You see there are a couple of ways you can navigate the current of the river. The simplest option is to just hang onto something and let the river take you where it may. Of course, this method also means you give up all control and the river just takes you where it takes you. Which means you could end up in sweet, calm waters or you could end up in rapids or even over a waterfall.
You also can choose to paddle against the current, try and paddle upstream, fight it all the way. The problem with this approach of course is that the river will always win. If you fight against the current all the time, you still end up downstream anyway but you’re tired and frustrated all of the time.
So I’ve always thought to approach the river (and life) by not fighting the overall current, but trying to paddle with the current in the direction it goes but steering towards where I want to end up. The river is going to move you along, but you can control whether you head to the calm sections or run the rapids. And let’s face it, at different times in life sometimes you need peace and quiet, a slow easy float and other times we want adrenaline and excitement.
To bring this out of the philosophical and down to earth, what I’m saying is that while there are plenty of things in life you can’t control, aging, other people’s actions and the randomness of the universe, there is some control you do possess. You can decide to eat well, exercise, and not smoke which won’t eliminate, but will make illness less likely. You can decide who you surround yourself with, if you choose supportive, helpful folks, you’ll likely be happier than if you don’t. One of the largest things is that you can choose how to view any situation, no matter how bleak. And as a reminder I link you to my favorite ever Ministry of Happiness post, Remember the Sweet Things. A true reminder of how powerful that perception can be, it includes an audio link and it will be the best five minutes you spend this week, I promise.
Finally, to bring this full circle to my life, I’m closing in on open heart surgery. It’s of course absolutely fucking terrifying, the thought of being split open like a lobster with my heart stopped while someone cuts up parts of my heart and arteries for several hours should be terrifying. However, I choose to look at it this way, if I want to live, I have to have the surgery and I have no control over what happens during those several hours. I have chosen to look at the whole thing this way, I can’t control the surgery so there’s no point in worrying about it. So I’m looking at it as the best way to be able to do all of the things I still want to do in life. A successful surgery and recovery allows me to retire, to travel and even return to long-distance hiking. It’s all in the way you decide to view things. So to steal a cliche that really does work, try and look on the bright side of things and you’ll have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. ~ Albert Einstein
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?
Today it was all about smells, out walking today on the warmest day of the year so far the air was alive. There were the smells of grills cooking, but most of all the flowers, some really fragrant rose bushes and some bushes full of blue flowers that I pass regularly were just incredibly fragrant today.
What did I learn today?
Another really wild connection between nature and prime numbers. When swimming through water, snakes leave traces in the form of wavy circles that precisely correspond to the dynamics of prime numbers. So cool, you really want to crawl down a rabbit hole, Google Fibonacci Sequence and nature.
What made me happy today?
Another really good day, the Bay Area on a clear sunny day is really gorgeous. Continued good blood sugar numbers and the Lady Vols are going to the Sweet 16.
The poetry of the Earth is never dead. ~ John Keats
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 is a flower in Asia, that when it’s petals get wet they become translucent, they are called the skeleton or glass flower.
What did I learn today?
The glass flower that I just described was the most interesting thing I learned today.
What made me happy today?
Watching the University of Tennessee Men’s team make it to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.
Loveliest of lovely things are they on earth that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculptured flower. ~ William Cullen Bryant
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 was a single California poppy rising in the midst of a huge clump of blue flowers, absolutely gorgeous and unfortunately I didn’t have my phone to get a shot.
What did I learn today?
Today I learned all about the details of a heart catheterization procedure, which is important since I’ll be undergoing one a week from today.
What made me happy today?
Watching the Lady Vols play nearly flawless basketball in a winning effort in a NCAA tournament game.
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~ Hal Borland
Happy Spring Solstice and Happy International Happiness Day. And you would think, as the Minister of Happiness, today would have been a really happy day for me, and you would be right.
Today started out on a great note, I had the lowest normal range blood sugar reading I’ve ever had, a 109, which is 61 points lower than where it was a few weeks ago. This is good news and gives me some hope that my surgery won’t be delayed. So a really wonderful start to the day.
As I drove to work I decided on this lovely sunny day to do the one thing at work that always brings me joy. That’s right, I wen to the the child development center I oversee to play with the munchkins. And there, like in my personal life, being the wonderful uncle I am, I get them all riled up and then smile, wave and leave. Today I made a mistake, after all of the munchkins had gone to the shed to get balls, one of them decided to throw their ball to me. I made the rookie mistake of catching it, because then, they all wanted me to catch their ball. Being toddlers, they of course don’t understand the concept that I can’t catch all of their balls at once. So they of course were repeatedly pummeling me across my body and head with balls and cackling like crazy with joy. It was like a slow motion dodge ball nightmare and it was madly wonderful. They got a huge kick out of it and so did I.
Then I got an email notifying me of a royalty payment. Which means although I haven’t published a new book in eight years, at least one is still selling. Don’t worry, I’ll spent that $3.00 very carefully. In case you’re not aware, my books:
Then this afternoon I got to present two faculty at their tenure celebration. These are two really fantastic women, who are incredibly talented and wonderful teachers. Both are insanely student focused and having an incredible impact on students, their programs and the college. It was an absolute honor to speak on their merits at the celebration.
Finally, to celebrate spring I called my niece Rooney because it was absolutely time for my niece to learn the pickle song. So I called her up and belted out the chorus of Arlo Guthries’ Pickle Song and of course wish her a happy spring.
In case you’re not familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvLtNBm1yyA
So it was a wonder celebration of Spring and the International Day of Happiness. So here are some lovely flower images to help you have a wonderful day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is. ~ Viktor E Frankl
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?
Today was a tenure celebration for two faculty I hired four years ago, two really amazing women who are phenomenal teachers who care deeply for students.
What did I learn today?
That the giant wood moth is the heaviest moth in the world, they grow up to a length of ten inches and weigh a whopping one ounce.
What made me happy today?
So much today, but I’ll go with the first one, I recorded the lowest blood glucose number I’ve ever had this morning, 109, way solidly in the normal range.
The Ministry of Happiness 