Those words were first uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer, in somewhat different form, after he set off the first nuclear explosion and he considered the worlds that would be destroyed by it. You can read further on J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Wiki. Note that he didn't say the words, 'Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,' at the time of the first atomic explosion and I'm glad of it as that would imply he had prepared them for the moment. When he actually said them was some time later after some consideration of what the explosion had meant and the source was the Bhagavad Gita. He spent a good deal of his life thereafter campaigning against nuclear proliferation and was stripped of his security clearances, etc as a result of it.
My goals are not quite so historic as my purpose is just to kill flies. At first I had thought there were so many of them because it's the season for the harvest of olives and there are many, many un-harvested olives on the ground. However, that doesn't appear to have anything to do with it. Seemingly flies appear in masses in Greece in late-Autumn in much the same way as college students go to Fort Lauderdale in Spring ... and likely for the same purpose.
My purpose is to kill them! I am not quite the theoretical physicist that J. Robert Oppenheimer became so I have not yet devised a death ray to vaporize them but I would certainly do it if my skills permitted it.
I had talked to Mary yesterday and practically begged her, please, please bring over some fly spray. She's very conscious of health matters and doesn't at all like the use of the stuff but she did it so long as I would use it in a safe manner (i.e. spray and then get outdoors until the stuff had done its work).
When she arrived, she saw the reason for the desperation in my request! There were at least two dozen fly carcasses outside the back door where I had swept my victories and there were still yet more flies alive and well inside! I had spent much of the previous day not accomplishing anything except stalking the miserable creatures as the small game hunter.
But now, thanks to Mary, I am equipped with fly spray and a swatter. Now I am become Death, destroyer of flies!
We talked some of how to reduce the dependence on her for picking up supplies as it's, obviously, not at all fair to her to ask her to go to the supermarket every few days. The most economical solution appears to be to get a motor scooter but don't immediately translate that to hammering about the place on a big bike. Thus far, I've not even seen any big bikes but there are many scooters, small-bore motorcycles that are driven, gasp, for the purpose of transportation rather than thrill-seeking. Conspicuous consumption doesn't appear to be of much interest to Greeks so it goes on that it seems to me there's a great deal the rest of the world could learn from them.
My goals are not quite so historic as my purpose is just to kill flies. At first I had thought there were so many of them because it's the season for the harvest of olives and there are many, many un-harvested olives on the ground. However, that doesn't appear to have anything to do with it. Seemingly flies appear in masses in Greece in late-Autumn in much the same way as college students go to Fort Lauderdale in Spring ... and likely for the same purpose.
My purpose is to kill them! I am not quite the theoretical physicist that J. Robert Oppenheimer became so I have not yet devised a death ray to vaporize them but I would certainly do it if my skills permitted it.
I had talked to Mary yesterday and practically begged her, please, please bring over some fly spray. She's very conscious of health matters and doesn't at all like the use of the stuff but she did it so long as I would use it in a safe manner (i.e. spray and then get outdoors until the stuff had done its work).
When she arrived, she saw the reason for the desperation in my request! There were at least two dozen fly carcasses outside the back door where I had swept my victories and there were still yet more flies alive and well inside! I had spent much of the previous day not accomplishing anything except stalking the miserable creatures as the small game hunter.
But now, thanks to Mary, I am equipped with fly spray and a swatter. Now I am become Death, destroyer of flies!
We talked some of how to reduce the dependence on her for picking up supplies as it's, obviously, not at all fair to her to ask her to go to the supermarket every few days. The most economical solution appears to be to get a motor scooter but don't immediately translate that to hammering about the place on a big bike. Thus far, I've not even seen any big bikes but there are many scooters, small-bore motorcycles that are driven, gasp, for the purpose of transportation rather than thrill-seeking. Conspicuous consumption doesn't appear to be of much interest to Greeks so it goes on that it seems to me there's a great deal the rest of the world could learn from them.
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