Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • 65th Wedding Anniversary

    Dave and I are nearing our 7th wedding anniversary, and that sounds like a lot to me. It doesn’t feel that long, which I suppose is a good thing. He and I were together for 6ish years before that, so our relationship feels like a long term, stable thing.

    This past weekend my husband and I drove to Indianapolis to spend time with his grandparents and his uncle Jim. I’ve written about them before, Dave’s grandfather always impresses me with his deep commitment to his wife. Bud mentioned this time that they would soon have their 65th wedding anniversary (sometime this fall, I think) and that he had been in love with Jane for even longer than that.

    Something about the words he used struck me, especially now that she is slipping away, sleeping much of the day, rousing for meals but distracted and disoriented. Though she’s still quick with the wisecracks, she’s also prone to sighs and confusion about where she is and how she got there. I recall an earlier visit with them, years ago, before they moved from their home to the apartment, at a time when her illness was first starting to show. At that time, when we pulled away after our visit and he stood on the lawn and watched us go, he looked so alone.

    This visit, he said quite clearly that he’d been in love with her for more than 65 years. His words made me think of how much of commitment to another person is made up of intention, how longevity like that takes a strong will. I’m sure there’s good fortune in there, choosing a mate wisely, the support of friends and family and (for them) church, good health that they both made it to their mid-80s…lots of things combine to make a 65th wedding anniversary even possible. What I admire in him is his intention to remain in love at a 65th anniversary, his intention to take care of her now that she needs him so strongly, and his intention to appreciate the good in whatever is happening right at that moment.

    I’m humbled by his commitment, and feeling kinda lucky that my husband, born 50 years to the day after his grandfather, has some of the same qualities–a strong willed focus on the positive–that I so appreciate in his grandfather.

  • The Sound of Mountain Water

    The Sound of Mountain WaterFunny, the books I’m reading this weekend are affirming each other. I suppose this means nothing more than I have consistent taste. I’m now reading The Sound of Mountain Water by Wallace Stegner. He writes about the value of wilderness as more than just a place to hike, ski, photograph, raft, or play. He writes about the value of the idea of wilderness.

    (more…)

  • Upcoming events: August

    Two noteworthy events coming soon!

    MiUPA: Design for two different generations: a user experience challenge

    We all know about the Baby Boomers: they are a huge demographic, there are a lot of them, and they are now aging. But did you realize that there is a new generation that outnumbers the boomers? Called the “Net Generation” these are people who are born between 1977 and 1996. There are 8 million in the US and over 2 billion worldwide. And they are joining your organization and usability group as employees. They also may be a critical part of your current and upcoming target audience for the products you sell and/or the interfaces you design.

    These generations are very different. In this session Dr. Susan Weinschenk will explore the two groups, their impact on the design of the user experience, and how their expectations, experience, use of technology and social collaboration will radically change the interfaces you design and the way you work.

    Register now to attend in person at Quicken Loans Tuesday August 21, 2007, 6:00-8:30PM or sign up for the webcast here: miupa.org

    Connect Ann Arbor event on leadership

    On Tuesday, August 28, 2007, you can learn the principles of leadership as taught by UM Football Coach Bo Schembechler. There will be a morning networking breakfast at Zingerman’s Roadhouse and an afternoon Networking event at Automation Alley in Troy.

    Connect Ann Arbor is partnering with Rob Pasick’s Leaders Connect to bring this event to Ann Arbor and Troy. Event information at connectannarbor.com

  • relaxing on the water

    relaxing on the water, originally uploaded by dunrie.

    My husband is the one in the middle. He is so much better at relaxing than I am. I suppose this is why we are good for each other…

    flotilla, originally uploaded by dunrie.

  • Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

    The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too LateI just finished The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late, which details how we are running off of “startup capital” in a resource-draining, non-integrated way. The beginning echoed many environmental books – a depressing litany of all of the ways we are living unsustainably. When I read that sort of thing I get to feeling hopeless, like there’s little I can do that will affect, say, the fact that we may drive chimps, bonobos, and gorillas extinct in the next 100 years (a factoid in a recent New Yorker article), will run out of oil, are destroying forests, losing soil to the oceans, and are causing certain fish populations to collapse. It makes me want to hide in a cave and renounce everything. It makes me want to give up. It makes me feel like the problem is so much larger than my own actions that there is no hope.

    It is refreshing that Thom Hartmann’s calls-to-action for recovery are small and affirming and possible instead of grand:

    • meditate,
    • live intentionally according to your own values, this has immense power and affects others, a positive ripple effect, a dampening of other influences,
    • notice the stories we create and accept about the way the world works and work to get outside them,
    • turn off the tv and talk to your neighbors, your spouse, your family, listen to the wind and see other living things as part of the larger system,
    • involve yourself in your local community.

    He doesn’t list them like this. But I think the main theme of his book is: get connected with yourself (meditate), with others, and with the larger system we all inhabit.

    For my part I’m passing this book onto a few like-minded friends and continuing with some things I’m already doing (meditation, subscribing to a local CSA), and I’ll be looking for other little changes to make to align myself with these ideas and work for positive change.

  • My Tribe

    Group photo, originally uploaded by dunrie.

    My tribe includes:

    1 husband
    1 stepmother
    4 cousins
    4 cousins-once-removed (including 2 infants and 2 kids)
    1 aunt
    1 uncle
    1 sister
    1 brother-in-law
    1 nephew
    1 toddler niece
    & 5 dogs

    This posse of 11 adults, 3 kids, 1 toddler, 2 infants, and 5 canines shared one roof and one bathroom at the family cabin last night. The infants and toddler came to a gentlewomen’s agreement to make it a quiet night’s sleep for all.

    All the noise, hub-bub, drama, and dish washing made me realize that our parents and our aunt and uncle are saints for having nurtured and endured our cohort of 4 in summers past. The cycle begins anew with the newest crop of Greiling kids.