There's a BEVERAGE here!

For the first time in about 17 years (the last time was for my daughter's birthday party), I went bowling in Petaluma this Saturday night. It was a benefit forPetaluma People Services Center, but the only thing that came to my mind was White Russians, and...

According to the "Which Big Lebowski character are you?" quiz:

This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps!

70 Landings!!!

I grew up in South Florida, carefully watching on TV, and then running outside of the house just in time to see it live, so many of the early NASA launches that they are probably embedded into my psyche at the sub-moelcular level.

Since moving away from Florida, and more or less growing up (something that does remain rather debatable) I remain fascinated by space travel and space missions. Thanks to Twitter, I am newly able to keep up with space developments in a way that I previously missed.

That's what happened just now. I got on the computer just to check some email, do a few Saturday based interactions and get on with the day. But I found a series of reports from "Astronautics" that led me to the NASA site, where I could get information on Discovery's landing after the week in space where they've been putting some of the finishing touches on the International Space Station. It was at the NASA site where I discovered that this makes 70 landings at Cape Canaveral and, frankly, that just makes me silly with excitement.

I am thankful for being given a love for space by my dad, and I am delighted to be able to be alive at a time and place where "the last frontier" is still being explored and where, thanks to our new president and his concern for new scientific exploration, we may finally - again - begin exploring the outreaches of our proximate universe.

It is indeed... An Amazement!

What's In A Word?

I had a dream last night... well actually the dream I had was early this morning and it was one of those dreams - not a bad dream actually, it was in fact quite a good dream - that make you feel all out of sorts, like it's trying to tell you something about your life and you may not be ready to receive the communication.

I'm going to keep the dream to myself, at least for now, as I take it apart in my mind and put it back together in my soul, but I have already implemented one change that came out of the experience.

I am - at least for the moment (we will see how it fits me over time) - changing the name of this blog from Quicksilver Amusements to Quicksilver Amazements. Two letters that make for a significant attitude adjustment.

It seems to me that for most folks, despite the fact that a part of the root is muse, a word that describes thoughtfulness and consideration, the central idea behind the word amusement is the idea of entertainment, mindlessness, and relatively thoughtless jocularity. For me, at least right at this moment, the idea of amazement is more dynamic. It describes an experience of enthrallment, the state of being actively engaged with a conundrum. It is, to my mind, a more dynamic and interesting concept. It is a state, far more than amusement, that I am interested in partaking in and introducing to others. At it's root, it also contains the word maze. This word, closely related to labyrinth is in fact a structure that as a metaphor for living seems to bring with it a lot of power; power to move, power to confuse, power to elicit intentionality and interest.

Amazement, it seems to me, is a much more active, interesting and engaging state.

What do you think?