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In September 2001, I was living and working in Japan. My first awareness of the attack came while watching the morning news while getting ready for work. The attack had happened overnight for us in Japan, as we are approximately 12 hours ahead of New York time, so I guess it was September 12th when we first learned of it. We were seeing filmed coverage of the disaster, with smoke billowing from the towers being played over and over in a loop. At first, I thought it was a movie that had been picked up by the morning Tokyo newscast, as I did not have mastery of the language enough to pick out the commentary. And my mind did not want to allow me to believe what I was seeing. I had to get independent confirmation before I could process it.

My daughter lived in Queens, New York at the time. She said she was on the Triborough Bridge on her way to work upstate when she saw the billowing smoke. I think we each suffered in our own individual ways. Even though neither of us lost a single person in the disaster, I felt we lost much: the landscape was forever changed, our sense of security and safety were gone, and, for a time, my hope for future generations was in question. Later that day, our US Navy base in Japan mobilized in defense and we stood up the call center for families and personnel to get information on loved ones. During that effort, I met a Red Cross worker, who was experiencing her own distress at learning that friends working at the Pentagon had been lost in a separate, but apparently coordinated, attack.]]> General xml-rss2.php?itemid=7 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:17:30 +0900 xml-rss2.php?itemid=2
I have learned through out my life journey that I like white space or, wide margins, between various aspects of life, and that simplicity is pure joy. Many years ago when I was just starting out on my life as a young scientist, my life forever changed when I read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Although he died in 1862, he remains an enduring inspiration for millions who understand his yearning for simplicity and his incisive inspection of daily life. This point of view fit nicely with my acquired taste for parsimony, the term scientists use to describe the ideal theoretical conditions for experimentation. A theory should be parsimonious or spare or stingy. A complicated theory is never as useful as a parsimonious one.

I have yet to identify a particular title for this blog, however, I am tempted to name it something that reflects my cultural environment of Japan and my appreciation for simplicity. I appreciate and admire blogs such as Zen Habits, Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar and Wise Bread and would like to develop a blog that would allow me to examine many topics.

Now if only I could come up with a parsimonious title that would evenly reflect all my interests.

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