The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

The website is all about his life and work; here, let us focus on defining and celebrating his outstanding personal qualities.
Mikado14
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Mikado14 »

Radomir wrote:Ok, I'll bite, huh? Local paper?

R.
According to the local paper, the release date for "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is December 12. I assume it will be 2008 and not 2009 but then this paper is VERY left wing.

Mikado
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
Radomir
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Radomir »

Aha! I stand enlightened. Somehow missed they were even doing a remake of that.

On another topic, it occurred to me this evening as I was cooking dinner to ask if TTB ever did any cooking himself, or left that to others? Other than what we know about his favorite snacks (pickled fish; peanut butter) there's no mention. Did he ever grill burgers on the porch? Cook pasta? Make Dagwood-worthy sandwiches? Or was all his creative energy directed at his lab work? Just curious. This is a character question, plain and simple.

Best,
R.
Linda Brown
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Linda Brown »

Hello Radomir!

Stretching my brain to remember .... but it seems to me that in the kitchen Dad really liked doing breakfasts .... especially omlettes because he was very creative in picking ingredients... usually very good. I can't remember any disasters! I can especially remember his shrimp omlettes.

Out of doors he liked to use this Hibachi instead of a big barbeque arrangement....and was REALLY good at cooking over a simple campfire. I especially remember fish that we had caught that day when canoeing..... Or chicken too ... or sort of a special kabob type arrangement that he liked, over rice. He liked eating outside, when in the city wherever they were they always had some sort of a patio where he and Mother would eat their meals...and I still remember fixing the campfire on different riverbanks.

And one of his specialties was soft shelled crabs out of the Chesapeake Bay ... made into a simple sandwich. No better ... anywhere!

And he had a special delight in those big sea scallops.... usually baked in butter with lemon on the side....

Any kind of hard cheese and crackers!!!!

Oh, and he could do wonders with SPAM, believe it or not!

And while on Catalina he used to make deals with the local fishermen for Shark ..... (which is amazingly good.)

And malted milk .... he always had some of that Horlicks (sp?) malted milk around and told me at one time that was one of the disadvantages of becoming a Lt. Commander in the Navy. The enlisted men had malted milk on hand .... and the officers didn't!

Thanks for asking Radomir. Brought back some wonderful memories. In fact, one of the last things that he wrote was a list of his favorite items... sort of a way to remind my Mother of what his favorite things to eat were. I still have it here somewhere. Hadn't thought about that for years...
Oh.... he loved to make up Peach Cobbler too. Sweet memories! Linda
Radomir
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Radomir »

Thank you for that very full response! So many wonderful stories and yet another great perspective on the man himself. The mouth waters at the camp-cooking especially, not to mention the cobbler. Nice also to know about his proclivity to eat outside--which one could almost gather from what's already been written.

Eric Clapton does a great cover of the song "Malted Milk," by the way...

Warmly,
R.
Linda Brown
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Linda Brown »

Radomir,

I am jumping threads here so forgive me but this applies to this topic too on the " character" of my Dad.

The book that he gave to Morgan during that first visit in Florida was " The Phenomenon of Man".... That edition though was a very early one, printed in French. I remembered it particularly because I used to borrow it during my highschool years to help with texts for translations in my Franch class.

I am sending you my paperback edition today so save money on ordering your own, one is on the way. Please forgive the chew mark on the top edge. I left it too close to a puppies mouth once. <g>

Years later Morgan and I spoke of that book, which I noticed was a very important edition to his library. He had a dog there too but a great big Irish Wolfhound which used to keep Morgan company as he read. ( Luckily that dog didn't develop an interest in chewing on anything! ( except intruders maybe, "Jack" didn't like intruders!}

I remember thinking at the time how odd it was that my Dad would make a gift like that to a kid he barely knew. But I am understanding now that he knew more of Morgan than I could have ever understood at the time. That book was important to Dad and now as we move closer and closer to " The Omega Point" I can see his reasons for making sure that it was placed into this "kids" hands. Amazing isn't it Radomir, how much time it takes for things to develop the way they are meant. Fondness of course, Linda
Griffin
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languages

Post by Griffin »

Linda-

I thought your father probably read and spoke French, and German as well -- and perhaps more. This could have been part of his toolkit for more than simply keeping up on the usual scientific texts and journals.

As ever,

Griffin
twigsnapper
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by twigsnapper »

Griffin,

This one I can answer for Linda. She may not know some of this.

Townsend Brown spoke several languages but never strayed away from English with his family. Perhaps I said that wrongly. He UNDERSTOOD many languages and could speak French and Italian nearly flawlessly though I think that might be a shock to Linda.

To my distinct displeasure he would sometimes lapse into Latin which as far as I was concerned deserved to be the dead language others considered it. He found it useful sometimes I guess but I never could appreciate that usefulness.

He understood German but would not speak it.

For the very many other languages and for translating in public or with his own communications ... he always turned to a very handsome woman by the name of Rose Hacket. Besides being extremely loyal to both Townsend and Josephine Rose was astounding in many ways. She not only could pick a language but could find the proper dialect within fifty miles of a target zone. And that included what I would call the "American dialect". Her " South Carolina" would draw the bees from the magnolias and within minutes she could also have that dreadful lockjawed Conneticut heiress drawl that would pass for gold anywhere. An amazing woman.)

twigsnapper
Griffin
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When in Rome...

Post by Griffin »

Thanks again, Mr. Twigsnapper.

It comes as no surprise, for someone in his position. I was considering asking the question about languages when Linda touched on it anyway in reference to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's book.

The fact that Latin was considered "dead" might have been one reason to sometimes use it and be reasonably confident that it would not be understood by anyone other than whom it should concern. Perhaps a bit like an Apache dialect.

As ever,

Griffin
Radomir
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Radomir »

Phenomenal set of exchanges, each of you, thank you.

Looking forward to the book, thanks so much for sending.

Sorry so brief--have to put these kids to bed...

R.
kevin.b
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by kevin.b »

Linda Brown,
Le plus chere Dame,
" Le point D'omega"
pourriez vous y entrer dans les details, s'il vous plait.

Kevin
fibonacci is king
Linda Brown
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Linda Brown »

The Omega Point Kevin was a phrase Brother de Chardin used.
He was a true visionary but well based in scientific logic. He pulled together many parts that todays world is still unable to see ... and the vision that he had was that someday all of this would meet in a single point... the Omega Point ... which would then enable us to move forward. He had two positive reasons for moving forward. The first was LOVE. The second SURVIVAL.

Linda
Mark Culpepper
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Mark Culpepper »

Linda,
I know you will read this because you seem to be keeping track of what is happening here on a regular basis.

Paul ... I don't know how much you look in on the Forum but I hope you see my message here because I think that I have uncovered a very interesting " point".

Linda, you made the comment that you were sort of amazed that your Dad would given this " kid" this obviously a keepsake book from de Chardin.

I know why he did it. Oh perhaps its already obvious that he recognized Morgan as the person who would figure so much in the future but there was something else. I think that he knew already that this was the meeting of two points ..... Love ..... and Survival. The two points that you say were at the top of de Chardins list of importance.

I can't express myself as well as my mind is seeing it but I saw the concept clearly when Linda wrote of de Chardins concept for the future and those two words just leaped off of the page at me.

Linda, I think that your Dad realized that in the world of the future that YOU would represent LOVE and Morgan on the otherhand would represent SURVIVAL.

Think about the characters of these two people Paul as you have written them. Linda has ALWAYS represented love in this story. She was the first to say it to Morgan and the concept was so foreign to him he didn't even know how to respond to her. And what was Morgans standard? What William Stephenson said to him when he met him during his career. I don't know what the exact words were but paraphrasing the quote it was something like..." Well, I see that you are still surviving" Morgan had said I think that he would do whatever it took to ensure survival. And I believe that the Caroline Group would not have picked this "kid" unless they knew he had the capacity to ensure survival not only for himself but for others. Maybe alot of " others".

I wish I could explain why I felt the need to point that out. But there it is. MarkC
Griffin
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Griffin »

Yes, I believe this is an important and central topic.

TTB’s obvious interest in Father de Chardin’s take on the Omega Point is another strong sign of where we’re heading -- from TTB’s informed scientific evaluation of lots of data, other sources, and his own intuition. Naturally, Father de Chardin interpreted his findings within the context of the Christian Logos, which I believe fits the profile of the intelligent and loving aether rather nicely as well, with some expansion beyond the dogma he had to conform to and was sometimes viewed as being at odds with. It ties in to the love based cosmic affinity-resonance which I believe has drawn the higher beings I call Visitants into this scenario. As part of a communication TTB was already aware of when I talked with him, the Visitants admitted their agenda: “We have come to conquer you -- with love.” They were “joking on the square” as someone I knew used to say -- introducing a little ironic humor into the most serious of subjects. They, too, have helped insure our survival as we managed to squeak through the Cold War’s MAD agenda of Mutually Assured Destruction without an evolution stunting catastrophe. It strikes me that this illustrates what has been called the Justice and Mercy aspects of manifest divinity. Yes, survival and love are both primally important -- but survival without love ranks quite low on the evolutionary scale. In fact, ultimately it’s a fiction in that we are always enveloped by a loving, supportive presence which works to insure our evolutionary development even if we’re unaware of it and working against its unitive intent, which it simply balances out anyway. The higher we evolve, the greater our awareness of it becomes according to spiritual traditions.

Here’s a Wikipedia link for anyone who is interested and hasn’t already checked it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_point

And here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia link:

In The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard de Chardin describes the following five attributes of the Omega Point:
1. it must be already existing; this is the only way to explain the rise of the universe towards higher stages of consciousness.

2. it must be personal – an intellectual being and not an abstract idea;
the complexification of matter has not only led to higher forms of consciousness, but accordingly to more personalization, of which human-beings are the highest attained form of this 'personalization' of the universe. They are completely individualized, free centers of operation. It is in this way that man is said to be made in the image of God, who is the highest form of personality. He expressly states that in the Omega Point, when the universe is made One by unification, human persons will not be suppressed, but super-personalized. Personality will be infinitely enriched. This is because Omega Point unites creation, and the more it unites, the more the universe complexifies and rises in consciousness. Thus, as God creates the universe evolves towards higher forms of complexity, consciousness, and finally with humans, personality, because God, who is drawing the universe towards him, is a Person.

3. it must be transcendent; Omega Point cannot be the result of the universe's final complexification of itself on consciousness. Omega Point, instead, must exist even before the universe's evolution, because Omega Point is responsible for the rise of the universe towards more complexity, consciousness and personality. Which essentially means, that Omega Point is outside the framework in which the universe rises, because it is by the magnetic pull of the Omega Point that the universe evolves towards Him.

4. it must be autonomous – free from the limitations of space (nonlocality) and time (atemporality);

5. it must be irreversible, that is it must be attainable.

Recycling, recycling -- returning, returning. We can wait for it, but while we’re waiting we can help it manifest.

As ever,

Griffin
kevin.b
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by kevin.b »

I wonder if this is the sort of place where all knowledge may go into a single point?
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/
Kevin
fibonacci is king
Radomir
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Re: The "real" character of Thomas Townsend Brown

Post by Radomir »

Linda, I think that your Dad realized that in the world of the future that YOU would represent LOVE and Morgan on the otherhand would represent SURVIVAL.
Brother, in all respect and deference to your quite insightful statement, I would submit that it is more like a yin/yang where each of the two people represent BOTH...at different times and sometimes simultaneously.

For we must consider the depth of Morgan's capacity for LOVE, and similarly, Linda's capacity for SURVIVAL.

How many schools did she attend, after all?

And how did he sustain himself through the decades with his purpose? What was his wellspring?

R.
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