Reply #120: I have been lucky.

[Gregorian]

By virtue of my failures, I have experienced more than most ever will. I quit a high paying job as an engineer in Silicon Valley to buy a tiny cabin in the woods. There a feral cat gave birth to kittens. I watched the whole thing as they grew. Then I moved from property to property. Six in all over the last fifteen years. And another coming up soon. All in a search for beauty that failed. Yet from reading your poem, didn't fail. I did experience beauty. And a ton of freedom to do whatever I wanted with all of my days. And variety. And truth. While riding my bicycle all over the logging trails of northern California, I found that the department of Fish and Game was really the police officer for big logging corporations. They didn't want us seeing the deforestation. But I saw it. And now I know where a piece of lumber comes from. It really woke me up to see the devastation. So it's easy to be upset. Now my cats are gone. And I still yearn for a home. The one I've been trying to find for over 15 years. I guess life was never easy. \

But after reading the entire paper you sent, I am still in a state of excitement. For 40 years I've been trying to tell people that when they look at a car, they don't see the entire infrastructure that went into making it. I completed a degree in machine tool technology before I became a mechanical engineer. I know what is going on behind the scenes. That paper is stunning in it's sense of clear and complete communication. I haven't been able to communicate so completely ass Lasse does. I'm absolutely inspired. I already sent the paper to a close friend. One who happens to be Finnish, by the way. I want to post it in other places, and hope it isn't too flagrant to do so. After all, I didn't find it. You did. I want to thank you again. This is not an insignificant moment in my life. I've spent 40 years yearning to see what is in that paper. It has brought a kind of liberation to me. I feel legitimate after reading it. I can't really put my finger on it, except that Lasse has done a brilliant job of communicating what I can't.