Inauguration Day 2021
History, Future and Website 2.0
I cried today with my wife. Tears of joy. Today was the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. There are so many emotions filling my heart now. The United States, having survived a serious threat to its democracy, swore in a Black/Asian/Female Vice President and a man who is more qualified than anyone ever as the President. The combined competence and decency of these leaders together with those they’ll select to lead the government gives me hope that we’ll conquer the supreme challenges of our time. God Bless them both and God Bless us all.
In my last blog I wrote of being excited about three major events: The November election; the possibility of returning to work at NASA; the release of my book. Two out of three isn’t bad and, truthfully the second item gave me mixed feelings. The team I was on that bid on a NASA contract did not make it to the “finals” so to speak. As such, my planned return to NASA as a contractor, at least for now, has ended. I confess I always was ambivalent about returning to work fulltime. That wasn’t my original plan post retirement. But I love NASA and I love the leaders of the company I partnered with on this bid. So when they asked me to step up, I said yes. I got excited about being back at the Agency I love. Now, I will serve in other ways.
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I am so pleased to show off this new website! Thanks to the wonderful webdesigners with my publishing partner, Girl Friday Productions, we are able to transform the site to the colors of Manners, and with an emphasis on the book. And on February 2nd, the book will finally be ready to launch! I am SO EXCITED!
As I write, I am reflecting on the inflection points that launched this project. From the first seeds of the idea at NASA Ames Research Center when a young student intern asked me what I would advise my 25year old self if I could go back in time, knowing what I know now. That was in July 2017. Then, the following month, my mother unexpectedly died, changing my world. It was when Dennis and I cleared her house that we discovered “Muriel’s Eight Cardinal Rules of Life.” Momma’s Rules would eventually become the throughline for the book. I walked through the decision portal sometime in October 2017 when I was talking to my next door neighbor Suneet about students and college and careers.
Like a wannabe Baptist minister, I cranked up around my passion for what I believe is the foundational skill for a meaningful and fulfilling career (and life) - manners - when Suneet, a normally quiet, reserved man, blurted, “wow, you should write a book about this!” After he offered a few reasons to back up his assertion, I said, “you know, I think I will.” And with that, the seeds of Manners were planted. I wrote a not-so-short summary of Manners in my Sept. 2019 blog.