James Lovelock

July 26, 1919 - July 26, 2022

I think I probably first heard about the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s. But it did not have much impact on my life and it did not have much impact on our society. And that is very unfortunate for us all.

In hindsight, Lovelock was far ahead of his time. Better said, we are far behind the time. And now it may be too late.

Quote:

Life clearly does more than adapt to the Earth. It changes the Earth to its own purposes. Evolution is a tightly coupled dance, with life and the material environment as partners. From the dance emerges the entity Gaia.

Mikhail Gorbachev

March 2, 1931 - August 30, 2022

 As a Baby Boomer I lived during the Cold War and I never expected it to end. We never expected to see a leader such as Gorbachev. We never expected to see the collapse of the Soviet union.

We learned new words - glasnost and perestroika.

And then we watched this great man followed by the likes of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.

Quote:

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.

Elizabeth II 

April 21, 1926 - September 8, 2022

In the early 1960s Lester B. Pearson began to address what he called “the flag problem.” On January 28, 1965 Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed the new maple leaf official, replacing the Union Jack. The death of QEII brought back to me the memory of arguing with my mother over this matter.

My mother loved the Queen and the Union Jack. But even as a young teen I was anti-monarchy. Being born to such privilege never seemed right to me. My mind never changed on that point. However, I do not remember how I came to have that attitude so strongly at such a young age.

I watched some of the events from the UK on the day of the funeral. I knew my mother would be watching as well. I talked to my mother on the phone a few weeks later but she had no memory of our argument decades ago.

But I did respect Queen Elizabeth II for how she carried out her duties.