Humanity

Most days I'm not a great fan of humanity, I admit it.  I am also a hypocrite  I love the people in my life with all that I am, and believe they are the most amazing things on the planet.  But as an entity humanity tends to be pretty disappointing for me.

Then Sunday happened.  I listened to a TED Talk by Dr Jay Bradner, a cancer researcher at Harvard and Dana Farber.  He has a new way of changing how cancer cells behave using a JQ1 molecule.  But he knows that more people working on this will make breakthroughs come faster, so instead of keeping this "in house" and secret so only his group can cash in if they some day make something that will save lives, he's made it open source.  That's right, it's free for any researcher to work with.  He has a link on his site where you can request a sample to work with.  Because curing cancer is more important than making money.  Sure, there is the publicity angle, and who knows what else will come out of collaboration, but seriously, this is therapeutic research that isn't being done in a black box of commerce!  I sat there listening and for the first time in ages was so very proud of my species!  This is what we can do if we stop worrying about how we are going to make money from something that will save lives.  It was like we were starting to evolve.  Here is a link to his talk:  https://www.ted.com/speakers/jay_brander

And then this morning I hear about someone beating up a hitch-hiking robot.  It made it across Europe, but two weeks in the US and then basically got mugged in Philadelphia.  Great.  And then there is the video showing it was an Eagles fan and now that is probably a hoax.  Why does Philly have to be such a disappointment?  Someone beat up a robot and someone else decided to make it a vehicle for their own notoriety.

I'm going to watch Dr. Bradner again and try to recapture that feeling that we aren't poo flinging monkeys at heart.  Sigh

August Again

Yup, it's August again.  I like August, even if it is really hot.  I like the word, something about the big old "A" then the gusty bit at the end I guest.  Even if it weren't my birthday month I'd still like it.

I've got a thing about birthdays.  They are Important. With a capital "I".  They give people like me license to lavish attention on the people I love and let them know how special they are and how lucky I am to have them in my life.  That is on THEIR birthdays.  My birthday isn't a big deal for me.  Would I be sad if no one remembered?  Oh most definitely.  But I'm pretty much as happy with a card as with about anything else.  I'm tickled people remember me. 

I have had 3 absolutely epic birthdays in my adulthood:  22, 31, and 37 (I could be wrong on the age there, but I know what I did...lol).  And all were very different, but had two important things in common: Laughter and people I love.  And none of them were really about things.  They were about time.

When I turned 22 I had just graduated college and was home for the summer looking for my first real job.  I was working in a book store and my friend said we were spending the day together.  Sadly, I had a one hour meeting I needed to go to.  We had lunch, he took me to the meeting, picked me up and then we went to see Happy Gilmore.  It was a beautiful, sunny day with my most favorite person in the whole world.  We laughed, caught up, and even hung out with my parents a bit.  It was a great day.

When I turned 31 I was just getting divorced.  I met my nearest and dearest and their kids at the Elmwood Park Zoo and we spent the day playing in the sun and being...happy.  Best part of the day?  When my friend's son was actually happy to see me, because for the longest time seeing me meant his mom was going out, and that was not awesome in his mind.

37 was my Broadway show, and dinner at a restaurant that had every tequila you can imagine!  The food was amazing, the company even better.  It was a weekend of laughing and smiling...and really great conversation.  I miss that.  Book of Mormon is a great show, and if you let it, it will lead to some really interesting conversations after.  For all this may sound like a "fancy" weekend, it never felt stiff or like it was "trying".  It felt just as easy as the zoo because it fit.

And I think that is what I am realizing as 41 approaches.  When things fit they are uncomplicated.  I don't mean that they are always easy.  There are "bumps" as my favorite playwright would say.  Bumps may slow us down, but they don't stop us.  But I like the uncomplicated right now.  I get less of it than I would like sometimes, but that makes it even better.