On this date (Jan 28)…

On this date (Jan 28) in the year 1754, the word serendipity was first coined. In a letter to Horace Mann, Horace Walpole said that he formed the word based on the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, in which the protagonists “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of”. The word Serendip was an old name for Ceylon (called Sri Lanka nowadays).

According to our old friends Merriam-Webster, serendipity is either the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought after, or an instance or occurrence of this discovery. Noted philosopher and PBS painting guru, the late Bob Ross called them “happy little accidents”.

While I appreciate the accidental aspect of serendipity, it’s the oft-overlooked second aspect of serendipity that most intrigues me: sagacity. Accidents happen – and they often have surprisingly positive results – but it does take a certain amount of sagacity to recognize and capitalize on these positive results. It’s not enough to have your chocolate be dumped in my peanut butter… you have to be observant and clever enough to then call it a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!

Historically there have been many examples of serendipity… here’s a quick “highlight reel” of discoveries and inventions that happened because someone had the presence of mind to jump on an accident and take advantage of it:

CHEMISTRY
1. Silly Putty
2. Teflon
3. Scotchgard
4. Cellophane
5. Rayon
6. Aspartame

PHARMACOLOGY
1. Penicillin
2. LSD
3. Minoxidil
4. Viagra
5. Nitrous oxide

PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
1. Water displacement
2. Gravity
3. Electromagnetism
4. X-rays
5. High-temperature superconductivity

INVENTIONS
1. Vulcanization
2. Corn flakes
3. Microwave ovens
4. Slinky
5. Post-It Notes

And these are just the obvious ones… Don’t forget George Lucas discovering Harrison Ford, or Grog finding a fire burning a tree outside his cave, or that time when Janet checked in on her eHarmony account and saw an entry for yours truly!

Accidents have been a part of human existence since the very beginning. Fortunately, we have always had a few bright bulbs around who were able to take these accidents and do something positive with them. As I look around the world today and see the glut of ninnies, doofuses, and talk radio hosts we have, it makes me feel a little better to know that we have those few folks around with the sagacity to redeem some of these “happy little accidents.”

On this date (Jan 24)…


On this date (Jan 24) in 1972, Shoichi Yokoi was discovered in the jungles of Guam. He was a Japanese soldier who had been hiding in a cave since 1944, believing that World War II was still going strong.

Yokoi survived primarily by hunting and trapping, mostly at night. He made clothes, bedding, tools, etc. out of native plants, keeping them hidden in his cave.

Among the most intriguing parts of the story is the fact that he stayed in hiding for more than 20 years AFTER finding leaflets announcing that the war had ended. Loyalty or stubbornness? Courage or fear? Obsession or integrity?

The story leads me to a bit of introspection. How often do we intentionally bury our heads in the sand when faced with evidence that we don’t like? How often do we hide from facts that are uncomfortable, or that fly in the face of our beliefs? Are we so afraid to face change that we will ferociously cling to an illusory status quo, no matter how painful that status quo might be?

It also leads to some other fascinating questions?

1. If a soldier doesn’t know the war is over, is it actually over?

2. If this were to happen today, how long until he would be a reality TV star?

3. If a man is alone in the jungle, talking only to himself without a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

On this date – Special Edition – Reflections on MLK Day

On this date (Jan 17, 2011) most of America celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s sad that I still have to say “most of America” instead of saying “ALL of America”, but we do live in an imperfect world…

For the last couple of days, I’ve seen a lot of Facebook comments and Tweets that have quoted him or otherwise referred to him – or at least mentioned the “one man come in the name of love” line from that U2 song. I do feel a kind of internal warmth when I see the impact that this man has had on the people around me. Certainly the Civil Rights Movement was about more than just MLK – there were a lot of people who contributed to the positive societal changes that were brought about during and since that time – but there is no doubt that he was a key player whose life made major waves that continue to ripple today.

I do worry, however, that many of us have grown complacent in recent years regarding the unity of humanity. While we as a nation have made great strides toward realizing Dr. King’s famous dream, we haven’t gone nearly far enough. Some in the public sphere have coined the absolutely ludicrous term “post-racial” as a societal descriptor. Of course, those who use it are either being ironic, sarcastic, dishonest, or dumber than a bag of hammers.

Far from any kind of post-racial utopia, we are still caught up in a pervasive and destructive “Us vs Them” mentality. If anything, I think it might be getting worse. Our current economic environment has made the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” larger than ever – and as Dr. King pointed out, “…it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” We are still caught up in a Malthusian zero-sum haze of ignorance that leads us to cling ever more fiercely to “what’s mine”… and we’re ever more willing to overlook the suffering of those who fit in the category of Other.

Folks from my faith tradition used to sing a song with these lyrics:

“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight…”

Wouldn’t it be great if these words were more than just lyrics? Wouldn’t it be amazing if more and more people lived as though they believed it?

Part of me thinks that it would be truly magnificent if we could have another Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – another person to embody the struggle for freedom, equality, and justice. Of course, the other part of me is sad that he or she would just as likely be deported, shot, or taken to Gitmo.

Fortunately, it’s never too late. “Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Let’s make sure that we do, too.

On this date (Jan 10)…

On this date (Jan 10) in 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense. On the surface, this work was a plain-spoken argument for independence from England, but a deeper read shows it to be a treatise about society in general.

In light of recent events in our country – events that prove that common sense is anything but common – I thought it’d be relevant to remind us that humanity’s lack of it is not new.

After the tragedy in Tuscon, it’s sometimes hard to accept the fact that we live in an age where what passes for common sense in this country can be summed up by lyrics to a Jim Croce song:

“You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit in the wind. You don’t pull the mask off that ol’ Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Jim.”

And even that sounds profound compared to today’s thoughts. So much of what passes for OK these days just isn’t… and it’s easy to get discouraged by what often seems to be a lack of societal progress.

But a quick look back over history reminds us that things have been worse. In very recent memory we have segregation and Jim Crow. Just a bit before that we have brothers fighting brothers because someone realized that their ‘property’ was actually a person, and it was somehow OK to break every single treaty with native Americans because they were different and they had what we wanted. When Paine wrote his pamphlet, it was common knowledge that white male landowners were the only people that counted. Before that, it was ‘reasonable’ to believe that bathing was evil, burning people alive was an acceptable way to get a confession, and that the bubonic plague was caused by Jews.

This gives me a bit of perspective. Suddenly I realize that Jersey Shore is just stupid and inane – not the harbinger of Ragnarok. Our love for illiterate pundits is just dumb, not pure evil. It seems we think that the First Amendment is designed to give us the freedom to be stupid, wrong, and loud… but then again, we have a First Amendment – which is more than Thomas Paine could say when he wrote Common Sense.

On this date (Jan 5)…

On this date (Jan 5) in 1972, President Nixon gave the official go-ahead for the development of NASA’s space shuttle program.

Nixon and the Rocket Scientists (I mean the actual president and NASA, not the early 60s girl group) had been working on the shuttle idea for several years by this point. The idea was to create a reusable system that would lead to easier exploration, and the staffing of a space station. Lofty goals!

As you might imagine, the other goal that was particularly attractive to the politicians was a lower price tag. And while the shuttle program vastly overshot its original budget goal, it was significantly less expensive than the Apollo program, as an example.

From 1960 to 1973, the Apollo program costs $19.4 billion. That averages out to almost $2.2 billion for each of the nine lunar missions (based on a 1967 midpoint, that means about $14 billion each in today’s dollars).

In contrast, as of 2005 the shuttle program had cost $145 billion, or about $1.3 billion per flight (based on a 1995 midpoint, that’s about $1.9 billion per flight in today’s dollars).

Overall, I think it’s safe to say that the shuttle program was a success. The biggest failure from my perspective was that I didn’t get to go up in a space shuttle and get frozen by a freak space accident, only to be awakened 500 years later by Colonel Wilma Deering in her smokin’ hot tight blue jumpsuit.

Hmmm… I wonder if it’s too late to add that to my list of New Year’s resolutions??