I don't want to diminish such a highly respected profession, but I guess a rocket scientist is the bench mark we use in distinguishing levels of intelligence.
Although my GPA in high school and college did not attest to any hope for me in becoming anything more than a Journalist or entrepreneur. I always felt like I had the capacity to learn, think and then apply my findings. My problem always seemed to be that "my rememberer kind of got plugged up". Even more so today when I try to recall what I just read 10 minutes ago.
But I really think if I had the resources that exist today, mainly the computer and the Internet, I could have excelled in a scientific field.
I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I love information. I love to gather information. And what easier way than the Internet.
Just yesterday, after watching "Bounty", a remake of the original "Mutiny on the Bounty", there was a scene in which the ship's navigator was using a sextant to plot his location. I expressed to the one who promised to love, honor and keep me on course, that I would like to learn how to read a sextant. Surprisingly, Pattye commented that she knew how to read this ancient GPS locator. At first I was a little shocked, but then knowing her and that she can do just about anything I wasn't surprised, but impressed.
Years ago, it would have taken a trip to the library or at the least a search through a set of encyclopedias, if your family was fortunate enough to have a set, (Hmmm.....I wonder if there are still encyclopedia salesmen out there since the Internet) to research and learn about a sextant.
But today, in just a matter of minutes, I had learned the basics of finding out not only where I am, but could even figure out where I am heading.
And then the other day, after we were watching some low budget film about an Indian who is captured by traders and whisked off to England in the late 1600's and sees his first horse, I make a dumb comment, "wait a second, I thought all Indians rode horses."
Once again, my partner corrected me by stating that the Spaniards introduced the horse in what is now New Mexico in the late 1600's and the Indians on the East Coast wouldn't have been exposed to such an animal. So, I get on the Net' and sure enough everything I wanted to learn about horses in America was right at my fingertips.
And then this morning, after what has been another scorching day in Texas, I decide to see what some of the hottest places around the world have been in the last week, thinking that surely Africa and Australia have to be in the 200's and 300's if Texas is in the three digit range. Nope, an immediate search shows me that Texas is one of the hottest places, except for Iraq.
Who'd a thunk it?
What would it have been like in the 1960's and 70's if I would have had the immediate access to all of this information. Would I have been joining the teams at NASA in planning for the first trip to outer space. Would I have been doing research to find a cure for some catastrophic disease. Would I have been reading temperature tables from around the globe to maybe change my beliefs about global warming.
Nah, I probably would have been blogging, and just gathering the information to pass onto everyone else.
I guess it is just my destiny.
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