Most Recent - Next - Previous - Page 1 - Photos - Index - Jazclass Links Monday February 11, 2008 (bio, Leiden University, exam, Antien, engagement) Professor L.U. de Sitter was in the 50s and 60s the undisputed top World authority on Structural Geology, the science of the formation and movements of the earth's crust during its 4.5 billion years history. He had written a 2½ inch thick Volume on Structural Geology describing and analysing the geology of the most prominent mountain chains on all continents. Every geologist in the world knew of him and most had studied his book. To have his name in my Resume put me instantly on top of the interview list for every job I have ever applied for. I did not go to many lectures when at Leiden University, but the ones by De Sitter I usually attended as they were always animated and interesting. He was a large imposing bony man with a dense crop of white hair, always wearing his flamboyant gold ring displaying an inch long rectangular brownish red stone on his finger. During his lecture he was usually looking at me, as I was the only student not bent down frantically writing out notes. I never wrote notes. Why should I, when every body else is doing that ? (I always borrowed some when necessary). Exams were all aural in those days. You worked a few
months on a given subject, made an appointment with the Prof in question,
and when the time arrived presented yourself dressed in a dark grey suit,
black shoes and socks, a white shirt and subdued tie, preferably grey. The
Structural Geology exam always took a standard full 60 minutes. Plenty of
time to be found wanting.
![]() I have got him there ! Hook, line and sinker. He laughs, knows it too, and we have a pretty good time after that. Mind you, he does not let me off easy, plenty of tuff questions, but it is in a unusual almost intimate atmosphere. He shares for that hour with me (and in a way is a part of) an important episode in my personal life. I pass the exam, he shakes my hand and wishes me good luck for the "big one" later today. Shortly after I catch the train to Zutphen. A few weeks earlier I had written an official letter to Antien's father, Mr. Garvelink, asking for an interview "to discuss a matter of the utmost importance.". His reply I receive in due course is affirmative, confirming that the suggested date and time are convenient to him. So I meet him, still dressed in my very appropriate formal dark grey suite, at his home
Acacia at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. After a few general words
of welcome he asks Antien to leave the lounge room and she retreats to the kitchen. I
outline my prospects and future plans including a most likely move
overseas. He consents and we have a few sherries and a cigar on our pact,
letting Antien sweat it out a little longer in the kitchen. Soon however we ask
her in for the good news. This is a very lucky day for me. Not only have I gained a lovely future wife, but also a hell of a great father in law.
About 7 or 8 years later I hear in Australia that Professor De Sitter has
retired. He retreats to his farm in Brabant (I believe) and never spends a
single word or thought on Geology ever again. Years later I am reminded of
him, as I have the same attitude in 1980. Been there, done that ! What's next ?
Most Recent - Next - Previous - Top - Page 1 - Photos - Index - Jazclass Links Tuesday February 12, 2008 (idea, this and that, bio, Holland, accorion competition)
Writing this Blog is a lot of fun. It is like making jigsaw pieces without
putting them together. You have to do that yourself if you wish, but it is
not strictly necessary as all pieces are like small cameos which can stand on their own.
About This and That
Being yourself often means being truthful, daring to
expose a weakness, vulnerability. But as long as you stay being
yourself you can always deal with that. In fact placing yourself in a
position of weakness (or apparent weakness) is exactly where you want to be,
because it is the position from where you are most likely going to win !
Here is another example of how being myself and being modest placed me in a
position of apparent weakness with success as a result. It was at the
piano accordion competition (see Jan.18)
I attended when I was 14 years old.
Bingo. I have unconsciously placed myself in a position
of apparent weakness. That means I can't lose.
So there you are. Make life easy on yourself and "be
yourself", always. It will not fall your way all the time, but even in those
cases you can still walk away and proudly sing I did it my way !
Most Recent - Next - Previous - Top - Page 1 - Photos - Index - Jazclass Links Wednesday February 13, 2008 (idea, introvert, personality, family, emotion, relationships, poem) I am, like my mother, an introvert, and so are my two children, Babette and Jeroen. We act and communicate freely with the "outside world", but we really live in our mind.
Writing this Blog I find my English wanting and need a Dutch dictionary to look up a word from time to time. After lunch I decide to drive past my self storage lockup and see whether I have left my old one there. I also need to try on some warm clothing for when I go to Germany. I don't find my dictionary and the coat I was thinking of is too tight, but I do find a box with old photos. And a quartet card set with pictures of Gorssel and its surroundings, including my school and, would you believe it the Oldenhof. Also a large manilla envelope marked From the Past. I open it, and find some school reports from my Primary and High schools. Then a faded pink envelope. Two photos fall out, and a pale pink sheet of paper, a poem .....
I read it again now. Her hand writing (I will call her "She" after the famous song by Charles Aznavour) so firm and intelligent. It is so beautiful, so perceptive at the time and therefore so heart wrenching tragic. It was the biggest tsunami in my life, 30 years ago, which changed my destiny forever. Even today it still sends an after shock through my emotions.
Emotions are so elusive, you can never read them properly. Most Recent - Next - Previous - Top - Page 1 - Photos - Index - Jazclass Links Thursday February 14, 2008 (diary, Valentines Day)
Back home I work on the old photos I found in my lockup, re photograph them with my new Nikon and modify them on Adobe Photoshop Elements, wonderful application that is. It is great to have these early pictures of my parents and grand parents, all long gone now. Stored away somewhere in a box they remain virtually forgotten. Now I can look at them, feel close to them, both on my web site and on my computer any time I want. Modern technology is wonderful.
Doug is at the dentists and has a few teeth out. So I buy two cans of Heinz
pumpkin soup for tonight which is easy to swallow. Also two more bottles of
Cinzano. They still come with those cute free 250 year Anniversary
glasses. I must have close to twenty of them now.
We
watch the News and an old movie, have a few drinks and go to bed.
Most Recent - Next - Previous - Top - Page 1 - Photos - Index - Jazclass Links Friday February 15, 2008 (diary, Claus, younger brother syndrome)
As I stop my car in front of Claus's home I can see as he walks towards me
that my previous week's effort has been wasted
from his perspective. He has clearly spent all week dragging up to the
surface all grudges from the past. The pupils of his eyes, contracted in
fury into tiny pinheads, are spewing out hatred only a human being is
capable of producing. "You come to offer us peace but
immediately start bitterly offending us again!" What on earth is he
talking about now I wonder. "You have addressed me
in Dutch in front of Pat (his Australian partner) who can not understand
that. It is an unforgivable slight you bring onto both of us". My
brother is an absolute genius when it comes to excuses, but isn't this
grasping at straws a little ? He hands me a plastic folder with some family photos as promised. "I also included copies of emails you have sent me. I suggest you read them again." I have not sent him an email for ages, what is he talking about ? Two emails I sent him more than three years ago. And here I am silly me thinking we were trying to put all that behind us and move on. I am mistaken of course, he has no intention of doing that. We are into the sequel of "Back to the Future". It is called Forward to the Past. It is probably called the younger brother syndrome and I suddenly realise that he must have suffered from this for most of his life. I feel in this regard profoundly sorry for him. Perhaps if I had realised the seriousness of this earlier I could have helped him with this. We live and learn. The sad thing is that his attitude has extended to other family members like my daughter, who used to love him dearly (and, most generously, remains the hand that feeds him, for one single reason only : he is family !) and to his own former daughter Eva who has disowned him and legally changed her surname several years ago ! So I say to him while parting "I am your brother and my door will always be open to you, because I won't be a party to doing another "Eva". What you do, you better think about." Mission accomplished. I have made the effort of reconciliation, which as older brother was my responsibility. I also left the door open to him. It is unlikely he will ever step through it, but that will be his decision. At the Sailing Club I read the two emails. Have I been to rough on him back then ? I am in fact quite pleased. I used moderate language, and what I wrote had to be said to him by someone from the family, and that was me. I would have written exactly the same thing today. I am quite amazed that after stewing over these messages for three years he still has not got it.
So that was it guys, tomorrow back to normal.
Copyright © 2008 Michael Furstner
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