Just like all dinosaurs it
takes a long time for information to get from my tail to my head. But after close to 80 pages of blog it has
become obvious to me that it is difficult to make a comment or raise a question
using blogger. So I make it a standard offer to write to me at my e-mail
address with any questions or comments to be answered at the earliest
convenience. My e-mail address is richard.charles.degeiso
@gmail.com.
Friday, June 29, 2012
General Announcement
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
You and Me and Baby makes Threeeee
As I wrote in my last blog, the number three was used to give understanding to the concept or idea of what it was that one had under consideration. And I used the term 'attitude' which was the combination, so to speak, between 'experience' and 'opinion'. In other words, as one gains experience, one depends less on opinion in establishing his attitude. But in either case "attitude" always remains the sum of experience plus opinion and can never be 1oo% experience nor 100% opinion.
Our world is a dualistic world which is made up of a whole lot of "opposites". The Greeks, as least as we can tell, realized that there was something more than just the black/white of everyday existence and this they defined as the trichotomy or the Golden Mean or perhaps what Socrates meant as Values. In this case the 'value' is the mean or middle ground between two opposites and is the ordering rather than the resolution of the dualism.
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Number Three
During the year 1965, when I was a middle manager for the DuPont company at the largest plant they had at that time, we were confronted with a threatening and potentially crippling strike. The plant was about a mile in diameter and employed about 10,000 people both wage and salried and supplied a number of other plants with products and intermediates vital to their offerings to the public. So it was imperative that the Corporate folks do something to avert a strike and return operations to its normal efficiency and tempo. We had a meeting of all supervisory personnel, about 200-300 hundred of us and our guest speaker was an Industrial Psychologist. This man, whose name has long been erased from my memory, told us that in order to avert the strife of a strike, we had to change the attitude of the workers. My mind immediately jumped to Madison Avenue with its slogans and posters and the like. But no, he said, we didn't have time for that and it wouldn't be lasting enough so that we might solve this problem and create another one down the line somewhere. He said that we had to change peoples' attitude...theirs, ours and everybodys. And the way to do this was to keep in mind that
Attitude = Experience + Opinion
So we started a program which included representatives from all levels of employees, wage roll, supervisory, and management types. These folks were given information on all aspects of the operation of that plant. And literally what we did was to create an environment which opened up communications, made everyone aware that we needed each other and reduced it to experience as we met and learned to understand and trust each other. In other words we changed people's experience and changed the attitude on both sides actually.
About 4 years later, I joined the Sabian Assembly, met Marc Jones, studied Astrology and learned more than I ever could have imagined about the number 3.
That was over 40 years ago. And DuPont went on from there to develop a program of participatory management and they have continued to be a solid part of American industry. As far as I can see my pension is safe in their hands.
In 1969 I started the study of Astrology the Jones way. After 40-some years I finally began to see that Astrology was as easy as 1-2-3-4. In other words if you can count to 4, I can teach you Astrology. Astrology is not to predict tomorrow's lottery. Otherwise we would all be rich or at least share the wealth. Astrology is an organon, a tool, to help create simplicity from complexity.
And what more complexity could we find than the mind and character of man.
The Greeks who were part of the development of Astrology gave meaning to the threeness of things. We live in a dualistic world that is made up of opposites. The word for this perhaps is dichotomy or cutting in half. The Greeks recognized a third element was needed for greater understanding and they proposed a trichotomy or literal cutting into thirds. And hence the number 3. The Greek mind at least from Pythagoras on was exceptionally tuned to space and geometry as such and they realized that to really understand something there had to be more than just the two opposites. It couldn't just be black and white etc. there had to be a third factor which allowed connection between the two concepts. Today we can see this in our example of black and white as the color gray. As we proceed from the state of white(which is a blend of all colors) to the state of black(which is no color at all) we proceed through shades of gray. So we begin to see what the number 3 means in its general nature. It describes the process as we progress from one extreme to the other. The Golden Mean had very great meaning to the Greeks.
Attitude = Experience + Opinion
So we started a program which included representatives from all levels of employees, wage roll, supervisory, and management types. These folks were given information on all aspects of the operation of that plant. And literally what we did was to create an environment which opened up communications, made everyone aware that we needed each other and reduced it to experience as we met and learned to understand and trust each other. In other words we changed people's experience and changed the attitude on both sides actually.
About 4 years later, I joined the Sabian Assembly, met Marc Jones, studied Astrology and learned more than I ever could have imagined about the number 3.
That was over 40 years ago. And DuPont went on from there to develop a program of participatory management and they have continued to be a solid part of American industry. As far as I can see my pension is safe in their hands.
In 1969 I started the study of Astrology the Jones way. After 40-some years I finally began to see that Astrology was as easy as 1-2-3-4. In other words if you can count to 4, I can teach you Astrology. Astrology is not to predict tomorrow's lottery. Otherwise we would all be rich or at least share the wealth. Astrology is an organon, a tool, to help create simplicity from complexity.
And what more complexity could we find than the mind and character of man.
The Greeks who were part of the development of Astrology gave meaning to the threeness of things. We live in a dualistic world that is made up of opposites. The word for this perhaps is dichotomy or cutting in half. The Greeks recognized a third element was needed for greater understanding and they proposed a trichotomy or literal cutting into thirds. And hence the number 3. The Greek mind at least from Pythagoras on was exceptionally tuned to space and geometry as such and they realized that to really understand something there had to be more than just the two opposites. It couldn't just be black and white etc. there had to be a third factor which allowed connection between the two concepts. Today we can see this in our example of black and white as the color gray. As we proceed from the state of white(which is a blend of all colors) to the state of black(which is no color at all) we proceed through shades of gray. So we begin to see what the number 3 means in its general nature. It describes the process as we progress from one extreme to the other. The Golden Mean had very great meaning to the Greeks.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Requiem For A Lady Marine
Well folks... it has been about 90 days since I have posted anything. And while the old Walrus is quiet he definitely is not dead. Me and Barb have been on an adventure of our own. Ruthie, Suzanne's mother woke up one nite and had a fall injuring her spine. My son Luke called and had a spacie like conversation with her sooo... He immediately handed her over to Barbara who suspected a diabetic episode and convinced her to call the parameds on her Medic-Alert line. They came and stabilized her and hauled her off to the hospital. And here is where the adventure began.
The local hospital got the diabetes under control and then sent her to the rehab division to see about her back injury. This meant a long trip for us to visit at the hospital, pick up the mail at her apartment, wash her clothes and whatever. Round trip for any given day was about 30 miles. But we were the closest of her living relatives and besides we had the time. At this point the plot thickens so to speak.
To make it easy on all of us, including Ruth, we had her admitted to the Pembrooke nursing home which is a 5-star facility and only a couple of miles from our home.
At this point the folks at Pembrooke found that she had been transported with an urinary tract infection which didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the first hospital she was in. So she was transported to Chester County hospital which also was only a couple of miles from our home. And that was a good thing because it made our once and sometimes twice daily visits a lot easier. They discovered a Pseudomonas type bacteria and began treatment to eliminate it. The treatment worked, but an opportunistic yeast infection now showed up on the scene. The assault on the kidneys from all the fluids necessary as well as the stress of a congestive heart condition was too much for her poor body to handle and so she passed on Feb. 21, 2012.
At this point Barb and I could go no further. We turned the rest over to Paul and Corinne to close out the estate and make the final arrangements which they did in fine fashion. RIP Ruth Luckscheider Noel.
The local hospital got the diabetes under control and then sent her to the rehab division to see about her back injury. This meant a long trip for us to visit at the hospital, pick up the mail at her apartment, wash her clothes and whatever. Round trip for any given day was about 30 miles. But we were the closest of her living relatives and besides we had the time. At this point the plot thickens so to speak.
To make it easy on all of us, including Ruth, we had her admitted to the Pembrooke nursing home which is a 5-star facility and only a couple of miles from our home.
At this point the folks at Pembrooke found that she had been transported with an urinary tract infection which didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the first hospital she was in. So she was transported to Chester County hospital which also was only a couple of miles from our home. And that was a good thing because it made our once and sometimes twice daily visits a lot easier. They discovered a Pseudomonas type bacteria and began treatment to eliminate it. The treatment worked, but an opportunistic yeast infection now showed up on the scene. The assault on the kidneys from all the fluids necessary as well as the stress of a congestive heart condition was too much for her poor body to handle and so she passed on Feb. 21, 2012.
At this point Barb and I could go no further. We turned the rest over to Paul and Corinne to close out the estate and make the final arrangements which they did in fine fashion. RIP Ruth Luckscheider Noel.
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