A Really Great Day

Some times, some days, just turn out to be great. 

First today I read an absolutely wonderful article by a Ms. Leslie Wickman, on the CNN web site. 

You can check out the article entitled "Does the Big Bang breakthrough offer proof of God?"

I have never understood the conflict and arguments between science and a belief in God. 

Clearly, ( in my view) scientific theories or beliefs like "evolution" in biology and the "Big Bang Theory" in physics can be viewed in context as the methodology used by the creator to enable creation, without sacrificing intelligence or rational thought.

Then again, I have always followed the dictum, taught to me so long ago I no longer can remember "whom" (or is is "who")  to give credit to for sharing this wonderful insight. 

The insight is simple. 

Never let religion get in the way of your belief in God. 

In any event you can read Ms. Wickman's article on the CNN's USA home page edition but I am sure she will not mind if I quote a small segment of her simple but brilliant piece that makes a strong argument that recent discoveries verifying the Big Bang theory of creation absolutely offer additional proof for an intelligent creator.

"The prevalent theory of cosmic origin prior to the Big Bang Theory was the "Steady Sate" which argued that the Universe has always existed without a beginning that necessitated a cause. 

However, this new evidence strongly suggests there was a beginning to our universe.

If the universe did indeed have a  beginning by the simple logic of cause and effect, there had to be an agent, separate and apart from the effect -that caused it."

Or in my words "ergo God". This article alone would have made this a great day. In my view every time science by accident or design ends up providing more proof for God, the world gets a bit better.

But today gets better. Everyone who has followed by blog knows my wife Lori is suffering from metastatic "tnbc" that has migrated to her brain and her liver and her kidney. She is a stage 4 cancer patient and there is simply no positives in that can be put on that. Her cancer is aggressive and terminal.

She was diagnosed over 37 months ago and has battled through six hospitals, countless clinical trials, cyber knife surgery on her brain, and worse.

However, in addition to now being treated buy one of the finest and most incredible doctors I have ever met (and I have met more than my fair share), Dr. Joyce O'Shaugnessy at Baylor Cancer Center in Dallas, Texas, Lori also has an incredible will to live, a high tolerance for pain, and an inordinate amount of faith. 

And without exaggeration she has at the very least over ten thousand people praying for her daily (and maybe more) all over the USA and around the world.

Well, today was a chemo day in Dallas (she flies to Baylor twice a month for an IV experimental cocktail made of three different chemo drugs injection) and today for the 8th straight week in a row 
(two full months) her tumor markers have dropped and dropped dramatically. This time by 20 full points. 

No, it is not a cure but for the first time in 3 years her cancer is being forced back. It is receding not advancing. No one can deny that this is not miraculous. That alone makes today a great day.

And today, a major issue, indeed a growing source of concern at work that has been plaguing me for the past few weeks, suddenly through the efforts of one unique person after hearing of my concern then went out and assembled a team of individuals (each already invested in our project), and that have the expertise to resolve this issue that could present a potential barrier to our growth and success, and they, 4 respective individuals each, will all be arriving in Texas next Wednesday where we will address, and resolve this issue. 

I mean really, what a great, great, day. 

So, after the last 5 years of battling getting this company off the ground and producing, after battling cancer and the fears that it brings with it, after fighting the "black dog " moods that as Hemingway once said,, "can reduce the bravest man to a coward in the dark hours of night", after all of this and more I have decided today to take a bit of a new direction.

Most of it is internal but it is important. 

I am going to try and live the way I want to live for whatever years I have remaining. 

I am going to strive to put aside any lingering fears that God does not exist. The evidence is just too overwhelming and the denials are, in my opinion, (sadly) based on ignorance and arrogance. 

I am going to continue to rage against what I see as the hypocrisy of prejudicial societal judgements and what I see as unfair rules and norms, only now as I go forward I am going to try and not let post action doubts creep in and steal my enjoyment after I have made my choice or decision for action.

 In short, if I want to buck the system then I need to stop being a "cry baby" or an "apologist" if the system bites back. 

I mean hell, at my age I am lucky to be alive, let alone healthy and functional, and living an adventure. 

I should be at a point in my existence where if I make the decision to do something I should be comfortable that I am doing the "right" thing, at least according to my view of the universe.

For the most part during my life, for "better or worse", I have lived guided by my own moral code and sense of fairness. 

At times it has bitten me in the ass but I have always survived and emerged stronger in both spirit and in my position in society. 

(I mean really, while all of us carry some degree of hypocrisy within our psyche, the hypocrisies of society as a whole would choke a pod of 9 million blue whales to death). 

Yes, there have been those times when my choices and decisions have really cost me, but honestly deep in my heart there is little to almost nothing that I regret having experienced and having done in my life.

So, today really has been a very, very, great day. 

Tomorrow fortunes may change, and life or a decision I have made may rise up and bite me once again in the proverbial ass, but maybe that is what has to happen to truly live and not just exist.

I mean wealth, cars, houses, possessions, it really does not appear as though you can take any of those with you when you leave this plane of existence (as much as I want to take my collection of John Wayne DVD's with me when I go) but I am pretty sure you do take your memories and those come from your experiences and your experiences are only as rich and varied as the courage you have to embrace those opportunities as they arise. 

And even though this has nothing to do with every thing I have just           written, or maybe it does, as it is another experience, isn't

this a very cool box turtle I found in Okinawa ten days ago? 

Esumi Makiko

Just returned from a business trip to Japan.

I always like to think I am not American centric but sometimes I find despite my extensive global travels these past 30 plus years I still have to guard against biases I hold based on experiences uniquely American.

Case in point.

On this trip with a business colleague (who is fast becoming a friend as well), I participated in multiple meetings with a lot of significant players in Japanese businesses.

During one very special afternoon meeting I found myself being ushered into an absolutely breath taking private home of one of the more powerful CEO's in Japan.

Now just as a brief aside and prelude I have in the past been critical of what I see as America's continuing love affair with celebrities. 

Having met a few A list "celebrities" over my career I have never been overly impressed with their celebrity status and in all but a very few instances found the "particular" celebrity "to be grossly egocentric to overtly narcissistic", largely uninformed about the particular subject to which they had been invited to appear to discuss, support, or promote or whatever, and finally basically largely only animated when discussing themselves or preparing for a photo op. 

So, when I was informed that during this meeting I would be meeting Japan's number 1 TV and movie star I immediately inwardly prepared for another "American" celebrity experience.

I could not have been more mistaken. 

I was introduced to a charming and beautiful woman named Esumi Mikko. 

During a lively and spirited discussion amongst some very impressive individuals over a two and one-hour period, she was self-effacing, genuinely interested, and extremely knowledgeable about the subject matter, deeply concerned about the environment and living creatures other than humans, and in short, the polar opposite of the celebrity experiences I have most often encountered in my past. 

I had brought as a gift copies of my book "Under Cover" and shared with her some of my experiences and controversies.

                                  

She in turn discussed a wide variety of personal opinions and views and in particular told of a sad personal encounter she had experienced personally years earlier in Kalimantan, Indonesia where she witnessed the destruction of the forests and the displacement of the creatures that lived there. You could see the experience still viscerally affected her. 

I have always been more interested in meeting what I designate as "true characters" as juxtaposed against celebrities or star types. And given my limited American view of the world of stars and celebrities in the USA I had developed the opinion one could not be both.

Yet in this instance I found that Japan's truly number 1, most recognizable and famous star and celebrity was not only charming, closely, and intelligent, but quite a character, which is for me, my highest compliment. 

And on top of all of that she liked my book. Go figure ! :-) 
                                

You can look Esumi Makiko up on Wikipedia as her bio and background is far too extensive for me to reprint here. Her list of TV and movie roles is impressive and her awards and recognitions far too long for me to reproduce in this blog. 

I will reprint the opening paragraph from Wikipedia which goes as follows:

Makiko Esumi ( Esumi Makiko) nee Makiko Hirano ( Hirano Makiko, born 18 December 1966 in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese model. actress, writer, essayist, and lyricist. Esumi is best known for her role as Chinatsu Tsuboi in the Japanese television drama series, Shomuni. 

(her additional background and list of accomplishments covers two more pages) 

Travel Time

Have been on the road a lot. 

Trying to decide where to put the first overseas GBT production farm.

It is exciting yet a bit daunting. We have come so far these past 3 years. 

We have radically redesigned the system, added new and evolutionary management procedures, redesigned the entire modular housing units, completely redesigned the grow out ponds, and much, much, more, and most importantly, assembled a world class team that understands the complexities of the GBT technology and shares the global vision. 

The production operation here in Texas should start actually growing shrimp over the next few weeks to a month or so. 

This incredibly brutal winter that has stricken so much of the USA has not spared south Texas.

Temperatures have been abnormally low, rain abundant, more clouds than sun, and so forth. 

I would say the weather alone has us about 3 months behind where we would like to be, but if there is one "old saying" that stands the test of truth and time it is "there is nothing you can do about the weather". 

(At least, not in the short term, the global warming issue is something else again). 

Can't write a lot tonight as I am heading out early in the morning for a flight to Japan.

A very exciting opportunity may be opening up in Asia. 

I will know a lot more in a week or so.

Just got back from 8 days in Colombia last Saturday. 

Colombia has a lot to offer as a possible location for a GBT production facility. On that trip I was accompanied by my friend and partner Stephen LaPointe. 

We are still assessing the various pros and cons of developing a shrimp production facility in that country.

There are actually 5 strong potential respective country candidates that have made the short list to be the location of our first overseas operation.  

We will be assessing the numerous critical components that are essential to our success in each of them over the next few months. 

We will looking at possible sites and quantifying other relevant factors, such a infrastructure, distribution routes, power sources and prices, and much more. 

In any case, I promise to try and be more entertaining or more insightful and perhaps, some what wiser in future blogs. 

For the moment however, let me share with you a quick picture of a new acquaintance I made in Bogota the day we departed to return to the USA. 

He had more attitude than Clint Eastwood playing "Dirty Harry". 

                             This guy did "make my day".