Our Legacy

Have you ever wondered as to what your legacy will be after you’ve departed from your physical being?

Is it important to leave a legacy behind?

How far in time will one’s legacy live?

How is one’s legacy remembered and by whom?

These are deep and personal questions and I’m raising them here with the intent of stimulating my mind and hopefully yours to ponder further on this subject.

Unlike what historians or biographers do in capturing the legacies of famous, notorious, influential or criminal mortals, as individuals we don’t seem to have the same motivation to document the legacies of our departed family members or friends and the same argument holds true about others doing that for us.

Luckily a very few individuals will keep a diary throughout all or part of their lives and some will even write an autobiography, but these are even fewer and far between.

I suppose we all have memories of our departed family members and friends and, in some way, by reviewing those memories in our own mind and/or by discussing them with others we are somehow generating a verbal and mental image of their legacy. Alas, it is less common that we formulate a written version of our thoughts and we often find ourselves regretting that we did not keep good records of the sayings and doings of our departed ones.

By the same token, memories of our lives as seen by others will follow the same trajectory as the above described one.

I will deviate a little from the topic here to briefly address a physical phenomenon known as radioactive element decay time. All radioactive elements continue to lose their radioactivity over time and the metric that scientist most commonly use is known as decay constant (or half-life). Radiation emitted from the isotopes of the different radioactive elements will decay with different time constants and I won’t take a deeper dive into the physics of this matter any further, but please hold that decay notion!

Bearing all of the above in mind, it is fair to say that the chances of having one’s legacy survive within a fairly narrow circle of friends and family will likely follow a memory decay process analogous to what happens to radioactive matter with differing decay times depending on what continues to be remembered and what was documented during one’s lifetime and/or after one passes on!

Hani Badawi
February 27, 2018

Fresh Air: Experience, Feelings and Thoughts

As yesterday was a very bright and sunny day in Evanston, IL, I was propelled to take a long walk by the Lake with the intention of getting some “fresh air” and breaking loose from the indoor confinement that is often dictated upon me by the usually unfriendly winter weather in this otherwise beautiful and scenic part of the world!

In addition to the reward of breathing in and filling up my lungs with fresh air, my visual senses and appreciation of nature were rejuvenated and my brisk walk reinvigorated my physical functions.

Clarity of the sky and the relatively warmer weather combined with a superb surrounding nature and architecture, all worked together in harmony to create a magical experience prompting me to keep taking photos all along the way!

Photos, lamentably, do not capture the feeling of fresh air!

Begs the question: Is Fresh Air only a physical sensation?

Here’s a thought: We may have a positive encounter or experience in the course of our lives that we may declare as “a breath of fresh air”. I wonder if it’s truly a sensation of fresh air or is it “like” breathing fresh air?

Perhaps the exhilaration derived from the foregoing situations allows us to imagine the feeling that we normally experience when physically breathing clean and otherwise unadulterated fresh air! On the other hand, that exhilaration may simply lead us to take a deeper and more relaxed breath which by some mental magic is truly “fresh air”!

Hani Badawi
February 27, 2018

Memories and Recollections

There are memories that lie dormant in our minds only to be stirred up and refreshed when:

1- We meet friends that we hadn’t seen in a long time, and
2- We physically go back to places that we once lived in or had visited in the past, and
3- A situation and/or a discussion takes our thoughts back to the old times.

Our minds are capable of archiving events in the form of memories but these memories need to be refreshed from time to time otherwise they may fade away!

Hani Badawi
February 16, 2018

Am I Ticked Off!

Tick! What an intriguing word!

On my daily “To Do List” I feel good when I proudly put a check or tick mark by a completed task. I do so while listening to the clock ticking with the familiar tick-tock sound!

Beware of ticks! Some of these insects are infected with bacteria and can transmit several diseases, worst of which is Lyme disease.

In economics lingo, A tick is a minimum change in the price of a security. Also known as a downtick, a minus tick occurs when a security sells at a price less than the preceding sale. A minus tick is the opposite of an uptick.

Some of my friends urge me to write a book and they often ask me if my book is ticking along nicely! I wish it were for I would have responded “I shan’t be a tick”!

Alas, I’m ticked off by some unbecoming and irresponsible behavior and actions of some politicians (and you know who I mean 😉) and pray that they will eventually go down the dustbin of history!

Rest assured, the time is Ticking!

Hani Badawi
February 16, 2018

Days of past, present and future

The 1967 musical album “Days of Future Passed” by the Moody Blues was and remains to this day amongst some of my all time favorite albums.

It is not only the lyrics and composition that render a special liking to a song/album but I think it is the memory of the times surrounding the initial exposure to it that colors it in an unforgettable and endearing way.

In the past few weeks here on my visit to Egypt, where I’m thoroughly enjoying the company and endless hospitality of my dear family and friends, I’ve been very lucky to relive some of my past through touring of both previously visited and unvisited areas of the country as well as meeting new extensions of my family and friends.

In this, as in many previous sojourns in Egypt, invariably I find myself humming tunes from the above mentioned album as if I’m trying to hold on to past memories and at the same time enjoying the present while wondering about the future!

Hani Badawi
January 23, 2018

Perception, induction, rejection and conviction

At the early phase of our lives, many of our notions and beliefs, rightly or wrongly, are seeded in our perception of things. We may, amongst other things, because of our limited exposure to details of the otherwise complex world, perceive that the world revolves around our family, home, school etc. Over time, our perception of things evolves and we start observing many exceptions to the rules and notions that were previously imprinted in our minds and corrections ensue. Effectively, in modern parlance, our perception goes through revisions in a very similar way as software or hardware do over time as a function of evolution of the sophistication in these respective areas of technology.

Adjustments and fine tuning of our perceptions occur via a multitude of mechanisms, some of these are unique and others common or shared, depending on our individual circumstances. Induction through education and media, rejection via our ability to reason out facts and conviction via numerous complex paths, are amongst many variable processes that we encounter at different stages of our lives, all of which constitute the forces that color and continuously recolor our perception of facts.

The notion of “Perception is Reality” is therefore predicated on the foregoing diverse factors and consequently it is impossible to claim that our perception (or reality) is identical to that of anyone else’s.

Conclusion (open for debate): Imposing our perception and/or reality has been and will continue to be a source of angst amongst individuals and nations too!

Hani Badawi
January 17, 2018

Pride and Prejudice in Our Lives

Many moons ago, in my senior year at high school, the English Literature class syllabus entailed reading/studying Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

As it happens, even though at that time I was gravitating towards and ended up choosing a natural sciences education and career, I continued over the years to retain my memories and admiration of the power of literature and it’s influence in formulating and polishing my thoughts with “Pride” and perhaps a little “Prejudice” too!!

Jane Austen’s theme was one that laid out the two aspects in the title of her novel over many pages of twists and turns in the lives of the Bennet family and, particularly that of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet.

In the novel, much like what happens in true life for you and me, the travails from the ridiculous to the sublime and vice versa are encountered at different chapters of the book in very much the same way as what we experience over the span or chapters of our lives!

In our formative years, as we transition from childhood to maturity, we are influenced by many expressed thoughts, mental and physical postures and behavior of those whom we observe amongst our family, teachers and friends. That influence may morph into bias or prejudice that often times is not that easy to break out of as we grow older.

The extent by which the acquired bias and prejudice is tempered will vary amongst individuals including between siblings depending on the different shades of personal experience, environment and circumstances that each is exposed to.

Prejudices and/or tainting of thoughts and ideals may spread like an epidemic and, without the necessary antidote, namely education, may well extend over national, religious, gender, class, rank, etc..... aspects of any society.

Needless to say, ill-founded pride and the presence or absence of envy, ambition, aspiration, bigotry, passion and jealousy, amongst other things, are important ingredients in the recipe that determines anyone’s personality. Sweet, tasteless or sour personalities are thus shaped depending on the doses and/or combinations of those ingredients!

Hani Badawi
December 29, 2017