Late Reflections

Systems fail. We can use our diagnostic criteria, stress-failure analysis, whatever tools, to study the failure, after the fact, but we often don't see it coming. Relationships. A yo-yo, then the string breaks. We're defined by our failures, Success is fairly easy, keep your nose clean and show up for the job, sometimes you have to dress the part, but it isn't difficult to not make waves. You just stay still and wait your chance. You see this most clearly in large reptiles. I remember fishing with Dad once, we were stake-poled over a bed of blue-gill, catching more fish than seemed humanly possible, and there was a trio of otters that had slicked out a slide down into the river. An alligator had set up point, maybe twenty feet away, hoping for a meal, I could just see his eyes and the front tip of his jaw. The otters knew the gator was there, flew, in the face of it. The danger was part, though they weren't really in danger, otters are very fast and change direction quicker than any creature in creation. The alligator never had a chance. Made a lunge, but we all knew it was futile. The otter danced away. One more cigaret and a drink for the road, though I'm home, and don't have to drive, thank god. 3:56 in the morning. All I have are questions, I don't have a single answer. Apa Sherpa has summited Everest 21 times. Couldn't do much at work because of the wedding reception, so looked at a lot of pictures, Velazquez, the bodegones, kitchen scenes. There's one "Old Woman Cooking Eggs" that I looked at for a long time with a magnifying glass. An amazing painting. Somewhere I had read the phrase 'Bernoulli Effect' and I had no idea what it was, except that it was a term from fluid dynamics, so I took the third book of my 1911 Britannica to work and read about the Bernulli family; Swiss, and generations of them were world-class mathematicians, discovering various calculus. I know where I read it, a book on geomorphology I got off the library sale table for a buck. I didn't know much about geomorphology. The 'Effect' is that pressure decreases as the velocity of a fluid increases. You can think about that concept for a while. It might be why fines drop out of running water in a very systematic manner. I tend to run questions of fluid dynamics against the grader ditch on the driveway. Something tangible. That incredible delta where Mackletree creek runs into Roosevelt Lake, where I find my skipping stones. Magma, propelled by very hot gases from below. We're talking diamonds here, very hot and a lot of pressure, then things erupt and you're left with what was created in the previous state, diamonds scattered everywhere. They don't get re-melted, because they're beyond any temperature you could achieve. A crystalline lock. An old-school bonding. And don't forget, I'd gleefully obfuscate myself into oblivion.