{"id":326,"date":"2004-05-19T17:05:44","date_gmt":"2004-05-20T00:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/wp2\/uncategorized\/may-19-1955\/"},"modified":"2004-05-19T17:05:44","modified_gmt":"2004-05-20T00:05:44","slug":"may-19-1955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/mine\/may-19-1955\/","title":{"rendered":"May 19, 1955"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is my birthday (note to identity thieves: I am lying). I am starting my <\/p>\n

50th year (which makes me 49 for the math-impaired). 50 can scarcely be considered middle-aged; odds indicate that my life is 2\/3rds over <\/p>\n

(or, more cheerfully, I still have 1\/3 left).<\/p>\n

According to Social Security Administration statistics (Popular baby names<\/a>), in the 1950’s, Mark was the 9th most popular <\/p>\n

name for male babies; several of my oldest friends had even more popular names (James, Robert, John and David; Steven is right behind me <\/p>\n

but Fred is way off; my first girlfriend — a 4th ranked Susan — called me Michael, #1 in the 50’s and 60’s). In the ’60’s my name <\/p>\n

had risen to 6th place. But, for the last 30 years, it has fallen steadily in popularity (I blame the rise of the Radical Right); just <\/p>\n

look at the 90’s (Popularity of the name Mark<\/a>) — not <\/p>\n

even in the top 100 anymore. My Mom told me Mark meant ”hammer or strength” — I don’t know where that came from.<\/p>\n

The day I was <\/p>\n

born was the wettest 24-hour period in New Mexico’s recent history (and that was during the last great drought). Not that I was born in <\/p>\n

New Mexico. I was born in Hawaii, where the wettest 24-hour period was probably wetter than 24 years in New Mexico. I was born in the <\/p>\n

middle of the ocean, where Anglos (Haolies) were late-comers and a cultural minority, a truly multi-ethnic, multi-lingual paradise, a <\/p>\n

place of ancient cultures and traditions. For 20 years, as of July, I have lived in the middle of the desert, where Anglos (Billigaana, <\/p>\n

etc) were late-comers and are a cultural minority, a truly multi-ethnic, multi-lingual paradise, a place of ancient cultures and <\/p>\n

traditions. Some might say I haven’t come very far; seems just far enough for me. I remain grateful and hopeful.<\/p>\n

I had a long and <\/p>\n

complex dream this morning, which I should have written down immediately. A few things have stayed with me. In particular, I remember an <\/p>\n

old(er) man, saying, ”I refuse to train people to serve a machine that is indifferent to them.” Then, he said, ”There is no <\/p>\n

higher calling than to foster social interaction.”<\/p>\n

I assume this old man is me. I like to think it is future-Mark once again trying <\/p>\n

to reach back to younger-Mark across time. More simply, we are the same person who was a baby and will be old. The ‘rage against the <\/p>\n

machine’ message clearly resonates with me. But the ‘social interaction’ message isn’t so clear to me. Is this it — the moment you <\/p>\n

are reading this? mjh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is my birthday (note to identity thieves: I am lying). I am starting my 50th year (which makes me 49 for the math-impaired). 50 can scarcely be considered middle-aged; odds indicate that my life is 2\/3rds over (or, more cheerfully, I still have 1\/3 left). According to Social Security Administration statistics (Popular baby names), … Continue reading May 19, 1955<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}