Playing Fair and Being Kind

I am procrastinating. Things I ought to be involved with right now:

1. Making a poster to promote volunteering with Alternatives to Violence Project in Maine. We need help badly.
2. Shopping for a Printer that uses only black ink. I’m tired of buying Magenta and Yellow cartridges for nothing.
3. Shopping for a new stove and a new refrigerator. I’m down to two burners on this old stove and the reefer has lost its punch, cold-wise.
4. Pulling out the lawn mower. It’s time to welcome Spring.
5. Cleaning the damn house.
6. Getting dressed.

Any number of other things.

The title of this piece is a favorite quote. I’ll tell you the story. During the very early 60’s the Navy was invested in building lots of submarines. The Cold War was in full swing. I was just turned 21 years old and I’d been transferred to a submarine under construction at Newport News in Virginia. The submarine systems that supported the nuclear weapons launching capabilities of the ship were so far advanced that engineers from all of the major vendors were also assigned to the ship during the building period. It took experienced engineers and trained Navy technicians to complete the installation of sophisticated equipment. The navigation center was where I worked and trained. The precision required to hit targets with pin-point accuracy was unheard of. This stuff was amazing in its technology and it all required very precise alignment during installation.

Heavy steel bedplates were integral to the submarine structure and the precise instruments that were used to measure alignment errors/corrections are called, theodolites. Those that we used were able to measure all three axes, X, Y, and Z. On ships these translate to Roll, Pitch, and Heading. Many long hours were involved over all three work shifts to get these numbers correct to ensure the system was as accurate as possible. The human error needed to be eliminated. This required suffering with groggy brains, tired eyes, and impatience. Ed Ross and Pierre Richard (French pronunciation) were the Sperry engineers working the late shift. Ed was peeking through the theodolite and Pierre was recording on a clip board. Hours of calling out numbers from the dials in the eyepiece of the theodolite had made Ed weary and after a while his eyesight was fading with the stress of focusing on the tiny numbers and divisions visible to him. He sometimes read the wrong division and had to correct himself. Pierre was getting testy from having to erase the last number (sometimes two or three times) that Ed had read off the dials.
Then came a moment when Ed was really confused with the image in the eyepiece and he was rotating the knob to focus and bring the image into clarity. He was taking an inordinate amount of time on this particular reading. Ed was struggling and Pierre was sighing and squirming in good fashion. Ed was measuring the axes and there was a confusion between the two men regarding which axis numbers were being recorded. Ed was quiet, waiting for clarity from Pierre and Pierre was impatiently waiting for Ed to say something. The unintentional stand-off continued. Pierre said, “Heading.” There was a period of silence. Ed had been measuring Roll. Thought he’d been measuring Heading. He quietly was shifting the axis in the theodolite to what he thought was Heading. Part way through the changing of his axis to the new axis he realized he’d made an error and was now in the process of relocating the Heading axis. Ed was growing weary of the job and of Pierre.
Pierre called out a little louder, “Heading!” Continued silence from Ed. Ed glanced up from the eyepiece and saw Pierre leaning against one of the empty computer cabinets. Pierre was looking up toward the overhead of the navigation center with complete relaxation. He was chewing a toothpick and humming softly to himself. Ed groaned inwardly and went back to the eyepiece. Pierre said, louder still, “Heading!” Ed shut his eyes and imagined Pierre in the sights of his Smith & Wesson .44 magnum. He was about to call for a break to gather his engineering acumen when Pierre reached the end of his rope and yelled, “Say something…even if it’s wrong!” Ed and Pierre took a break.

Have a pretty day. I hope it is as lovely where you are as it is here in Maine.

Peace,
G. M. Goodwin