Venus, and la Légion d'Honneur

I used to think that with the right outlook--with a positive attitude and the correct approach--I could live well past the life expectancy rate determined by statistics.  I was thinking not just 100 years, but why not 200?  But even before my hair started thinning over the superior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe of my brain, I recognized that while I didn't have to give up entirely the possibility of living for so long, and reading so many books, it wouldn't hurt to believe that the odds would play out for me physically the way they play out for other men.  I decided that with all likelihood I would indeed age in a way similar to humans around me.  It might make you giggle a little to see in my thinking such delusions of grandeur, but I will remind you that until quite recently, the frontal lobe of my brain was not yet fully developed.  And even now I wonder if I have quite grown up, and good for me if I live to be over 100 and am able to be like a child in exactly the right way.

Anyway, I will have to live to be well over 100 to see the next transit of Venus.  We got some good footage of the kids seeing it (except for you, Gonzo--you'll have to use your siblings' photos to plead your case), in case they live so long that they will be able to view the next transit in 105 years.

In case you were wondering if the transit of Mercury and the transit of Venus ever coincide, I don't think so. At least not in our historical timescale.  It would appear that Mercury crosses in May and November while Venus crosses in June and December.

When we arrived at the Sugarland Museum of Natural Science for the viewing party on June 5th, there was no shortage of nerdy excitement.  I promptly asked to borrow a man's solar shades and viewed the dot of Venus in front of the sun with my naked (but shielded) eyes.  Later in the evening as the sun was setting and slightly adumbrated with haze, clouds, and extra atmosphere--you know, when you're pretty sure you can look at the sun even though you're not supposed to--we inspected the golden orb with our naked and unshielded eyes and found the dark dot of Love upon it.

More clear and impactful was seeing it "up close" in the telescopes, and the best show of all was a sort of light box that with a series of reflections and magnification showed the image of the sun about 5 or 6 inches across on a white placard for all around to see.  The sun has been going through a phase of numerous sunspots lately, and I was delighted to see four such sunspots on the sun as well.

Here are our photos:

cardboard is technology.

because of the reflection, these images are not oriented the same as in the sky.  

looking down instead of up

well, we did have a picture of you with us, little one.

this last one is a picture of Orry helping Isaac with his math.

June has been a great month so far, but I've been keeping so busy I haven't kept you up to date with it.  I ended the school year, started up with the summer program teaching ESL, and since it's a six day work week I haven't made time for recording the off-time on this weblog.  This is the first of my catching you up, and keeping thecurrenttroydanielbecker current.

In light of my earlier comments on long life, I just finished another book by another favorite lesserknown author of mine, Julian Barnes.  In his book The Sense of an Ending, the reader thinks about our memories over the span of our lifetime, and how we evaluate our actions and our lives, both know, and in the future as we think of them in the past.

The jacket of his book touts Barnes' status of commander in the French order of the art of letters, so I thought, oh, yeah, naturally Julian Barnes and Theodore Zeldin must know each other.  Zeldin is 13 years older, but he actually got the same award almost 30 years ago.  And then I found that Zeldin was just last month or so awarded the rank of Commandeur in France's Legion of Honor.  I recently did a rundown of British status titles, but I today I was also curious about the French.  Technically, they do not admit foreigners into the Legion, but they bestow on foreigners a distinction which seems just about the same.  Notable heads of state are in the Legion, as are people like Schwarzenegger and Toni Morrison and Ralph Lauren.  The last three are Chaveliers, though, and not Commandeurs, like our Professor Zeldin, whose Honneur is more seasoned, it is fair to say.

Look at me go on.  But enough!  Thank you for reading.