Dear Mariner,
I met with my friend tonight for our Tuesday sewing session and Ric Burns episode of the Documentary New York. I have watched this documentary many times, but my friend has not.
The Tuesday evening sewing session started with artistic intent, but tonight I brought a laundry bag that was becoming undone at the seems on the side and in the right corner.
The bag is constructed with synthetic fabric which quickly disintegrates on the edges–where one needs to sew. It is a lime green synthetic laundry bag–not a fine garment.
I have not made the leap to the “smart” phone yet–I will be “forced” to eventually.
I think you have adapted as best you can to the new techno-ethosless way so keep on truckin’!

What is Mariner saying? I cannot accept paragraph one. Paragraphs two and three are fine. But I would not toss a bone to the base!

Excellent analysis–and scarier even than Fox News.

I was fortunate enough to be present at a union meeting some twenty tears ago where Elijah Cummings was a guest speaker. I’ve sat through a LOT of sermons and a fair amount of speeches, but I’ve never been so stirred by words spoken by another human being than I was that night. He captivated the crowd in a matter of seconds and held it tightly in his grip.
The other event which so illustrated his humanity were his remarks to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer when he appeared before Cummings’ oversight committee. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly urge you to find it on Youtube.

I cannot agree with AM about term limit based on age. Doing this will rob the government of experience gained over long lifetimes. I have seen the results of losing such experienced people, and it’s not pretty

In response to your reply, Robert, which I accept as the inevitable reality, mariner inserts an email response to his daughter’s question, “What would mariner do if mariner were 35 years old?” He responded:
My, that is a frightening question. Frankly, I don’t know what to do or even how to go about finding out what to do. My inability to integrate myself into the new culture is a sign of me being a product of an outdated culture; it is one reason I hesitate to continue the blog – I don’t have a ‘feel’ for today’s experiences. It is quite easy to say, “In my day . . .” which means “I have no idea why . . .”

I represent the nice, white haired, familiar politicians who are hurting our future because they can’t relate to the existential experience of the present.

With that caveat, my opinion is that on every front of life there is a battle with change. Change in culture today makes the invention of the automobile a small blip in history. Entering a new, relatively stable culture will not be like walking from one room to another. Rather, think of the earliest pioneers venturing into the unknown west – before trains, before electricity, before grocery stores, before law and order. The old way has been learned and lived in but there is a new way we don’t know about and we are forced to walk into it.

So much for sociology. I am proud that you and your brother have established self-managed careers. I believe this will become a critical skill for a large number of people whose current careers are about to disappear. If I were 30, I would maintain a sensitivity to the big picture of career and personal solvency. Just as guaranteed good wages and benefits are disappearing along with unions, there will be little protection as culture rumbles about.
When I started Decision Logic, an effort to provide specialized programming to hospitals and other businesses with complex scheduling, it was less than 2 years later that large software companies were able to leverage new technologies to produce a complete set of functions in one business-wide product – including scheduling. Fortunately, but not without adversity, I adapted my skills to help other companies convert to the new technology. It took me 4 jobs and 10 years.

It is more important than ever to see where the tide of enterprise is going and to have a plan or two how to stay with the tide. These days even the tide can vanish.

Being of another culture, I can’t understand the devastating impact on personal privacy and security or corporations and banks that have no obligation to society. Despite the disappearance of storefronts today, I believe there is a stabilizing role for thousands of Internet based, small business, self-managed careers that will retain sanity in our culture as it runs rapidly to and fro for the next 30 years.

You and your brother are pioneers.

Glad to have you back! I like Monday Mariner as a concept, but still think you should send the emails to whoever is on your list. I also like the shift of focus away from the swamp of partisan politics. Better to be on the high seas!

Your recommendation about email notices is taken in hand. Perhaps another method can be devised.

Yay to all of this!

This is good news. Looking forward to future weekly posts.

Thank you for making Monday interesting again.

If writing the blog has been ‘fun and even invigorating at times’ then I hope the ancient mariner will come back to it. It has been fun and even invigorating to read at times, and who will stimulate the conversation without that inimitable voice? Who will speak for Chicken Little, Amos and Guru? Who will speak for the oldies? Or speak truth to power? Please don’t give up now–‘now is the needed time’ to quote an old Negro spiritual. The perspective of age is never going to be in sync with the youthful culture of the moment, but it is a needed (and interesting) perspective. Please don’t abandon the ship, or the dock–or your readers wherever they are. We are a motley crew, to be sure, but we have been loyal readers and look forward to future posts.

I thought this post was going to be about the impeachment proceedings. I hope you don’t hang up the cleats, but if you do please know that I’ve really appreciated your insight and the wisdom you’ve shared through this blog.