Originally, this blog was going to be called, “On becoming less dumb”. The focus was going to be on how common knowledge is often wrong. Literally every single person I asked thought “On becoming less dumb” was condescending and advised me to not insult my reader

 “Scale and perception” ( www.scaleandperception.com), this blog, is focused on the idea that by looking more closely and or broadly at a topic, often brings clarity about the topic.  For this post my goal is to revert to the premise for “On becoming less dumb”.  

As a teen, I was obsessed with the following problem pointed out by a Junior High school science teacher.  The point known as “halfway there” is, or should be,  actually always relative to your frame of reference.  

Here was his example. Imagine a football field where the team on every play moves the ball halfway to the goal line. The first play brings them to the fifty-yard line.  Once at the fifty-yard line there is a new “halfway there” which is the other team’s twenty-five yard line.    

With each play the ball would be placed half the remaining distance. Six and a quarter yard line, three and an eighth yard line, one and nine sixteenth yard line, etc.  After hundreds of plays they would get extremely close, but the ball would never actually cross the goal line.  

The lesson of course: While one can be halfway between point A and point B, you can never be halfway between where you are and your destination.  You need to specify whether “halfway there” is from where you are or where you were.  

When I was in about second or third grade, some other kids and I were going to dig a hole through to the other side of the earth.  We thought we would dig into China.  We got about five feet deep when my dad told us to fill in the hole before someone got hurt. 

Only several years later did I understand that had we dug deep enough, we would have burned up from the molten iron and nickel which is under the earth’s crust.  In addition, had we actually been able to dig through the earth to the other side, we would have come out somewhere in the Indian Ocean—between Australia and Africa.  We would have drowned.

According to the internet the Kola Superdeep Borehole, is considered the deepest man made hole on Earth. It is 40,230ft-deep (12.2km).  It did not go all the way through the earth’s crust let alone go into the earth’s molten mantle.   

Probably somewhere around fifth grade, I started to comprehend that all matter is made up of atoms.  Probably around eighth grade I came to better understand that atoms consist of protons, neutrons and electrons.  

Since then I’ve come to understand that protons and neutrons are made of quarks. The current state of knowledge is quarks and electrons are fundamental particles, not built out of anything smaller.

What I find fascinating about atoms is that they are about 99.9999999999996% empty space.  Which is to say the electrons and quarks in an atom take up 0.0000000000004% of the atom. Everything is made of atoms.  So, quite literally, everything is almost completely nothing.   

So next time you’re asked what something is made of, it would be accurate to respond, “it’s almost completely made of nothing”.

Distance is an easy concept to understand, however, in our everyday reality, distance is relative to how long it takes you to get there.  

Walking to Chicago from St Paul is about 400 miles. Walking 20 miles a day, it would take you 20 days to walk there.  Doable but a long walk.  Chicago is a bit more than five hours to drive from here to there.   And by plane it takes an hour and forty minutes however you need to add the time to drive to and park at the airport, Also add the time you need to be check-in and going through security.  . 

The distance to the moon is 238,900 miles.  Driving to the moon at seventy miles an hour would take about 142 days if you could drive 24 hours a day every day.   The sun is 91,914,000 miles from earth.  Driving to the sun at seventy miles an hour would take 150 years.  

Humans can walk 20 to 30 miles in a day.  If they walked 30 miles a day, every day of the year.  It would take about 22 years to walk to the moon and over 8,000 years to walk to the sun. 

Time is an interesting concept.  Time is generally defined as the sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future.

The earth is thought to be about 4.543 billion years old.  Water is considered to be about the same age.  Life on earth, single cell organisms, is thought to be 3.7 billion years old.  Human-like creatures have been on earth for about 6 million years.  Which means humans have existed for only 0.001% of the life of the planet.  

From the perspective of the planet, humans as in the entire human race, existed for just a bit.  

In junior high I thought the following  was a hilarious joke: What is the seventh planet from the sun?  If they didn’t know I would say: “your annus” and laugh hysterically.  Sometimes I needed to explain that the seventh planet from the sun is actually “Uranus” which sounds exactly like “your annus” when it is spoken.  Even then I’d have to explain that annus is another word for butt hole.    

Looking back it is a wonder I didn’t get beat up more.  

The closer you look the more you will see

Before I went to my Urologist’s office to get my quarterly PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) level checked, I whined a bit to Linda about how inconvenient getting my PSA level checked is.

When I checked in, there was a somewhat disheveled man about my age, on a four wheel electric scooter with a deep, loud, raspy voice, checking in one window down. At first I thought he was being rude then, after a second, I realized he was not being rude, just direct and efficient.

They were busy. There were three seats in the row I sat in. I was on one end, the middle seat was empty and in the seat on the other end was a man about my age. He looked deep in thought. Judging from his tattoos and patches on his jacket he was probably in the Navy at some point in his life. I’ll call him, “the Navy guy”.

Right after I sat down, the scooter guy drove up and parked next to the Navy guy. Below is the gist of the discussion I overheard during the couple minutes I was sitting there.

The scooter guy started the conversation by telling the Navy guy that his left leg will be chopped off below the knee in a few weeks. He said his right leg was chopped off below the knee a couple years earlier.

The Navy guy responded he was there for the final check before the removal of his left leg below the knee in just a couple days. The Navy guy’s voice and demeanor made him seem to be very nervous. They were seeing the same doctor.

I have no idea why two guys getting their lower legs removed would be seeing a Urologist. I just sat quietly and didn’t ask.

The scooter guy tells the Navy guy it is scary but, never forget, you’re alive to be scared, so that’s a blessing. He added, every day he was thankful to be alive. He said, during one of his previous surgeries, they brought him back from the edge of death. I wanted to ask for more details but I didn’t.

The conversation continued with the scooter guy reassuring the Navy guy that while life without the lower part of a leg has its challenges, the challenges were all surmountable. After all, you either get your leg chopped off or you will soon die.

He talked about the process of getting his prosthetic lower leg. Lifted up his pant leg to show him his “leg” which was a metal bar attached to a foot from the ankle down. The “foot” had a sock and tennis shoe on it. If he hadn’t said so and lifted his pants leg, I would have had no clue his lower leg was missing.

The scooter guy’s advice was to make sure your artificial foot is the same size as your other foot so your shoes will match. That way most people who see you will not even know you are missing the bottom half of your leg.

Then in a very serious voice he recalled how relieved he was when he learned Medicare pays for the scooter if you pick the right scooter. He said make sure you tell them you want the scooter medicare covers. They will try to convince you to get one with all the bells and whistles but the medicare covered scooters do the trick and don’t cost you a dime.

The scooter guy said he sold his house and moved into a “facility” to get some care. He did not explain what he meant by a facility. All I can say is the way he sounded, moving into the facility was like a blessing, not a negative thing at all.

The Navy guy asked the scooter guy if he had diabetes also and the scooter guy said yes. The Navy guy then said “damn diabetes” while shaking his head in disgust. Scooter guy nodded in agreement.

The Navy guy said he was nervous about the surgery. The scooter guy laughed out loud. He said something to the effect of, well, without the surgery you will soon die. With the surgery your whole life will change but you will be alive.

Then the boisterous and gruff scooter guy looked straight into the eyes of the Navy guy and said “feeling sorry for yourself is a waste of time”. Apparently being direct was just what the Nave guy needed to hear. The Navy guy looked visibly calmer.

About that time I was called in for my blood draw. Only the scooter guy was there when I was done getting my blood drawn. He gave me a quick nod, I quietly said, “Good luck” and he quietly responded “thanks”.

As I walked out of the office, I knew it was time for me to stop whining about my medical appointments. It was time for me to take better care of myself. I am lucky to be alive and functioning. The time is now for me to start appreciating how lucky I am.

Real life serious medical issues are not fun. The state of the art with cancer is to remove it and continually check in case the cancer comes back. The poor circulation which some people with diabetes live with results in the loss of appendages. I felt a little ashamed at being annoyed with having to get a PSA test every three months.

Each of my three cancer surgeries, kidney, prostate and colon, disrupted my life for only a couple months while I healed from the surgery. I am thankful I am alive.

My PSA level was undetectable, good news. However thank you scooter guy for reminding me how lucky we all are to be alive. I feel ashamed I whined and pitied myself for the inconvenience of having periodic tests.

The closer you look the more you see