Malibu morning picture of the day - Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

It's late going up, but here's your morning picture (taken at 10:30 AM) up from a higher point on campus, since I had to attend an early meeting.

Overcast, with many breaks in the clouds caused a lot of sunbeams today.

Here's a closer look that kind of shows you how the water is being highlighted by the breaks above.

I'm giving you all this grey! Here's a just little color from a flower in our Military Honor Garden planted alongside our chapel. The greyness of the morning sun mutes the usual brightness of these flowers that are all over campus.


If you're a U.S. armed forces veteran, I hope you are feeling appreciated, at least today. My father and my second son are both war veterans. A thank-you to them for their service.

I am of an age when practically no boys my age that I knew had any desire to serve in the military. We turned 18 as the Vietnam War ended and so many of us had older brothers who were scarred burnouts with nothing good to say about the military experience at all. In fact, Congress abolished the draft AND draft registration, such that I am of the tiny cohort of men who were exempted from registration.

There was an international incident shortly afterward that showed that not having an easily grasped handle to conscript young men was a bad idea, so the draft was not instated, but mandatory registration was, just in case. My next older brother and my younger brother both are registered, but not me. We're still all-volunteer; some guys tell me that their draft number is a handy component for passwords--for all you hackers and crackers out there.

When I think of the divided and largely do-nothing government that we live under today, I suspect that we are still seeing the workout of this tremendous distrust that much of that population has (now in their 50s-60s) of handing too much authority over to the executive branch.

If you have the day off, enjoy and spend a little time thinking about the holiday. This is also my late mother's birthday--11/11 always made it easy for me to remember it.

Love,
Pops