The onset of mortality

Today it has been one of those days when you have a chance to set battle against mediocrity: there are some brilliant people out there... Some bold people. And so much to learn from them.

So the Company shows up today to see how things are going. A whole meeting talking about shear stresses, waves, instabilities and the onset of drop formation. At the end, I stepped outside the meeting room to download some material for the visitor, L., and when I came back, I catch the ending of a sentence L. is saying: "(...) and when I came back, she was under water"... . Well, the man is about 50, her fiancee (met her 2 years ago) died in mysterious circumstances drowned, 2 months ago. I was shocked! I would not say the guy was undergoing such circumstances, I just could not say that from what I saw today... The guy was under a terrible strain but, still, you could not see it. And he talks about that!

Two features I praise much about Americans: their disposition to a new beginning always and, second, that they never take life for granted. It is smart, it is impressive, don't you think?

I have seen so many Americans behaving like that.I remember a 60-year old single mother from Athens, Alabama, or around, working at the back of a packaging line telling the story of how her son got shot last night. And she was then, working there, in that awful place!

L. keeps talking: "(...) Oh, you are getting older... You feel something different... . When you are young, you don't worry about mortality". Is that right, L.? And what is the mechanism that drives the onset of mortality in us, the path towards the winding road down, down, down?

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So much to learn... Today, I felt that perhaps I talk too much... I should shut-up and listen a little... And wonder, double-sensed.