All Shook Up

I just finished retaking the seismic portion of my P.E. exam. What was the point of that odyssey? They ask one to solve for an unreal amount of information in a very short time, with little or no time to look anything up.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you want the person who is designing the buildings and bridges you will be using to take their time? I can just picture it. . .“Yep, I designed this 10 story office building in 3 minutes and 20 seconds, who’s moving in?. . . . . . .chirp. . . . .. . . chirp. . . . . . .”

All it proves is how much one can memorize. I can memorize the Gettysburg Address, doesn't make me qualified to run the country. Maybe they misunderstood and think we can only do the design during an earthquake.

The Logic of Love

The Logic of Love – An experiment in Chemistry

Firstly there are two separate elements that are usually combined. The “female” and the “male”. It has been shown in previous experiments that these terms are extremely vague, as the properties of any one of these elements vary greatly. Note: Further classification may be required at a future date.

At the start each element is in an extremely agitated state. They undergo a process known as “dating” that can be very long and also alter the aforementioned properties. At some point a given element will meet a complementary element and the chemical reactions begin. These chemical reactions are called “Love”. It should be mentioned that the “Love” process is not just entirely chemical, however that will be expanded upon later. If the love is real, the single elements begin to understand that what they were living before is known as “half-life”. Some examples of real love versus “fool’s” love. Similar to “fool’s gold”, it has the outward appearance of real love, but is pretty much worthless.

Fool’s love – “I would die for you!”
Real love – “I will live for you”
Author’s Note (Biased): Dieing is easy, any fool can do it. But to truly live for someone, being there through all the good and bad, is much harder.

Fool’s love – Buys something expensive to try and please their partner.
Real love – Thinks of something personal and relevant to do for or buy their partner, for the joy it will bring.
Author’s Note (Still Biased): Thoughtful gifts are always the best. Expensive presents create more stuff to move, thoughtful presents create memories.

Fool’s love – Tries their hardest to make their partner happy.
Real love – Makes themselves happy while being with their partner.
Author’s Note (Yep, Biased): The one thing we want most for our loved ones is for them to be happy. Unfortunately, this is not something we can do for them and trying usually produces the opposite result. If we truly love each other, then making ourselves happy makes those who love us happy.

Once the process begins, often the elements themselves will actually try to alter the outcome of the experiment. Sometimes they will try to force a bonding between two incompatible elements. In other cases, two suited elements will try to prevent bonding for unimaginable reasons. In most cases each of these efforts proves futile. However, even two seemingly opposite pairs may be joined with the right catalyst.

At first love is a mixture. The chemical reactions occur mainly within the pair and not between them. As time increases either separation or a bond begins between the pair and increases exponentially. Once the bond is established the two literally become one. Some evidence of this can be seen by the following examples:

When half of the bonded couple dies, the other half does not long survive. They literally could not live without each other.

The female half (at one end of the house) yells at the male half (raiding the cookie jar at the other end), “You’ll ruin your supper.” She can often sense what he is thinking.

The male half feels ill in the morning and his feet begin to hurt. This is two weeks before he finds out his wife is pregnant. Often called a “sympathy pregnancy” he feels much of what his wife is experiencing. Strangely enough this seems to end abruptly before the actual birth.

In the opposite case when separation occurs there are often explosive results. If an inadequate catalyst was used, then the bonding was incomplete. As the pair begins to reject each other, the initial bond continues to draw them back together. This can be extremely damaging to both specimens. As the separation continues the tensile strength of the weak bond is usually pushed passed its limits and the bond ruptures dramatically. Though there is some damage to each of the elements, they are still completely capable of successfully bonding with another element in the future.

Final Author's Note: From my experience, love is not an experiment that should be tried in pieces. It doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't have to work, it doesn't have to be right. But if one should decide to fall in Love, they should do it with total conviction, total commitment and total heart. In the end you'll either be happy or wiser. Anything else isn’t logical.

Falcon and Sparrow

A little rhyming children's story about potential, ambition, risk, trust and love.

Falcon and Sparrow

Once a Falcon landed
near a Sparrow on the wall
He noticed there was sadness
In her little birdie call

He asked her “Why so glum?”
To which she sobbed a peep
“I’m stuck here on this ledge
wondering if I should leap.”

The Falcon looked confused
‘till understanding lit his eye
“Do you mean to tell me
You don’t know how to fly?”

“I’ve never really tried,
I just sat there in my nest,
Until a spring wind blew me
Tumbling here to rest.

“Now I think that maybe
This is where I’m meant to be,
For if the world wished different
I’d still be in my tree.”

The Falcon only chuckled
And gave her some advice
“The world will always test you
be you mean, or be you nice.

“If you choose to meet
these things that cause you pain
You will find the sunshine
Hidden in the rain.

“But if you choose to sit here
Scared upon the wall
One way or another
You’re guaranteed to fall.”

The Sparrow thought a moment
And looked a little sick
“Maybe if you pushed me,
that might do the trick?”

The Falcon shook his head,
“The choice is yours to make,
I’ll not have you blame me
With all that is at stake.

“But this I can promise
to stand there on the ground
and if you decide to jump
I’ll see you safe and sound.”

So he waited at the bottom
To catch her should she fall
And watched her make her choice
As she leapt from atop the wall

Tumbling down she came
Sure she was going to die
And then her wings snapped open
And she swept into the sky.

She chirruped with the feeling
Of finally being free
The Falcon right beside her
Racing through the trees.

So they flew together
Off into the blue
The Falcon and the Sparrow
Friends forever true.