As summer comes to a close, I had a very busy week traveling to several of our community colleges.

Last Tuesday, I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for student housing at Lake Tahoe Community College. It was inspirational to see so many people come out to support this fantastic project.

Read more at https://sonyachristianblog.com/2023/08/12/ca-cc-vision-2030-on-the-road.

– sonya

Recently, I saw Oppenheimer … an excellent movie… I believe one of Christopher Nolan’s very best. I have a low tolerance for long movies. This one is 3 hours… and I was immersed in each and every moment.

Christopher Nolan is a highly acclaimed filmmaker known for his unique storytelling style, intricate narratives, and visually stunning films. The phrase “non-linear storytelling” is ofter used by film critics to describe his work. Nolan’s films often delve into complex philosophical themes and human psychology. Existential questions, the nature of reality, time, and identity are recurring motifs in his work.

*****

I spent time in Sacramento, with an apprenticeship meeting co-hosted by the Labor Agency and the Chancellor’s Office. Together we are hoping to convert our California Community College apprenticeship experiences into Apprenticeship Pathways. And thank you Secretary Stewart Knox for your partnership. Stay tuned for more to come.

Read more at https://sonyachristianblog.com/2023/08/05/ca-community-colleges-serious-work-with-a-light-touch/.

– sonya

The recent Delta flight in July 2023, stuck on asphalt for several hours in Las Vegas, causing multiple medical emergencies and hospitalizations, is the tip of the iceberg and lucidly illustrates the decline in service in air travel. Airports have become jurisdictions on their own where liberty goes to be humbled in the guise of purported safety(Benjamin Franklin had forewarned: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”)
According to one study, TSA costs over 690 million dollars per possible life saved, if that.
TSA sure has become a necessary hurdle for all of us to navigate our path to second-class citizenship inside the airport and witness the Airways employees in an arrogant overdrive. An occasional pleasant experience has now become an exception.
I will narrate our experiences inside the US borders and in Europe.

In April 2022, dozen friends across the US decided to hang out in Montana for a weekend. Dr. Bill Baker is our fishing guru and led the team.
Here is a brief summation.
It is a logistical dilemma to have a Baker’s Dozen assembled in a tolerable ranch on the pristine banks of the undulating Missouri River pregnant with the spawning Brown and Rainbow trouts.
An edible dinner in LA, buoyed by drinkable wine, ushered us into an early morning flight.

The fortune predicated ominous beginnings.
Our adventures started early.
Comfortably seated in our on-time plane, we counted our blessings too early.
An “unnamed” flight crew pressed a button that “mandated” oxygen masks on a plane that was in the process of boarding.
Supplemental oxygen on the LA grounds? Pollution is getting intense!
Comedy of errors and airlines crew in their designated territorial hood of airport carefully created to stifle civil liberties swung shamelessly into full display.
After a multitude of conflicting announcements, we were asked to deplane.
The maintenance crew “miraculously” fixed the problem as hanging oxygen masks were renested in their designated safe preserve.
This much ado, however, cost us an hour, which was to be the safe harbor transit time to connect to the next plane.
Hope springs eternal, especially if rekindled by the flight crew as our plane landed within the mathematical possibility of making the connection.
Reassuringly, the crew apprised us of the welcoming serendipity of the proximate location of the next gate. The moment the plane landed, we took off with the intensity of bats from hell, hell-bent on not missing the connection.
Alas, “the proximate” gate was 1.3 miles away and shredded the aging lungs.

A few of the physicians of Kern in their 7th and 8th decade ran to catch the connecting flight and made it on time. Boarding, however, was declined because the person at the gate had yielded commonsense and service to intoxicating power trips.

The huffed requests to the rehearsed indifference of the airline staff trained in sadism is a sight.

The arrogance, the throwback on the rule book to lacerate the wounded a little more, we have degenerated!
Air travel/airports monumentalize it.
We are losing our liberty.
Airports will be an excellent place to reclaim some of the dignity back.
Abject subjugation in the name of performative security is a theater we can do without.

An hour of necessary layover extended into 8 hours as we had to catch an alternative flight from an airport two hours away. We ended 8 hours solely to the stubborn whim of an attendant who discovered the power of rules and disregarded the decency of practicality or humanity.
Where does the arbitrariness of performative rules stop and decency of commonsense prevail?
Camaraderie anyone?

We concentrated our efforts on renavigating the destination using alternative flights.
The parody of errors continued to multiply. Our luggage was “reassuredly” redirected to the new destination. Except luggage was nowhere to be found on the carousel. The airline was predictably clueless.

Luckily we had an astute law officer in our party who would join us in Helena, our original destination.
His trained eyes located a familiar piece of luggage on the conveyor belt and astutely looked for and retrieved all our luggage, sparing us from the consequences of the continued incompetence of Delta employees.
We could have been on the same plane, with the luggage, minus the hassle!

Regrettably and predictably, we had no recourse but to suffer the offshoots of compromised travel rules.
Hello Delta!
Canceled rentals and rearranged travels took us to our destination late at night with lighter wallets.
The image of those disinterested and unfriendly Delta employees with the glee of callousness in their eyes still dagger the decency we used to have.
The threat of being placed on the no-travel list compels me to hold my silence.
Russia?
China?
Delta?
Liberty is overrated, right?
The weather threatened to be an intriguing challenge over the three-day spread. Between the rain, snowflakes, hailstorms, wind, clouds, and Sunshine, we covered the entire spectrum.
The tangled lines of amateur anglers failed to dampen the enthusiasm of an occasional catch. The plenty in the Missouri River seemed to more than overcompensate the substantial beginners’ deficiencies.
The pros amongst us were relentless in their successes.
Late evening fish stories primarily practiced the time-honored Fishing Commandment: Thou shall lie.
No fish was too small, no lie, too big. The camaraderie made its commandments, and the bond endures.

Adios amigos, till next time.
Travel, camaraderie, and decency need to reconnect.
Adios arrogance till forever!

– Brij

This week began with my first Board of Governors meeting, on Monday morning. We officially kicked off Vision 2030, our roadmap for California Community Colleges. This week began with my first Board of Governors meeting, on Monday morning. We officially kicked off Vision 2030, our roadmap for California Community Colleges.

Read more at https://sonyachristianblog.com/2023/07/29/california-community-colleges-acting-with-urgency-and-leading-with-courage/.

– sonya

Check out the happenings from last week in my blog post: “Closing out June 2023- Work hard…play hard.”

– sonya

The tiny footprints of an infant on the wet floor of the dense jungle suddenly buoyed the dying hopes of the search crews on the rescue mission for nearly six weeks.

The family had tried to escape to safety from the threats of a cocaine cartel in Colombia. Fate, however, had different designs, and the plane fell like a rock in the dense Amazon jungles. The mother succumbed to injuries after day four but gathered her four children and urged them to live and find safety. Lesly, at 13, suddenly had to become the matriarch and provide for the food and safety of three younger siblings, Cristin being a mere 11 months. Lesly buried her grief; now was not the time. The kids took three pounds of yuca meal and started walking West, following Mom’s orders. Towering trees rising 130 feet from the mushy jungle floor made for dense shadows during the day and pitch dark at night. The thicks of the jungle harbored poisonous vipers, deadly insects, and hungry jaguars. The wind rustled all the time. Lesly was on a mission, and she won’t let her mother down.

On seeing the infant footprint, the machetes started clearing tree branches and bushes with renewed vigor. Lesly heard the approaching rescue as she was collecting fruits and nuts for the younger three and let out a scream of joy. Three exhausted siblings, Soleiny, 9, Tien 5, and Cristin barely 1, lay barely moving close by.
The Dad of the younger two kids put everything in perspective; “we are children of nature. Nature gives us Oxygen and nutrients, and in her safety, we can rest.”

In this land of plenty, as we fight obesity and each other on contrived grievances, existential adversity survived by an infant and little kids teaches us the real meaning of life.

Inspiration, thrive on it.

– Brij

Back home in India, every moment was a tribute to the parents. In my adopted land, in the USA, it was a shock and a discovery that parental love had the confines of a day on the calendar.

I slowly recognized the underlying sentiment; it’s necessary to etch out a day that celebrates the specialness of creators’ love.

Life is a fleeting blessing, and parents a vital link, father the weaker of the two.

Mother is the trustworthy source of love and life.

Our present blessings go back to the universe’s beginning, stellar cycles, supernovas creating elements that made life possible, billions of years of evolution on a rocky planet in a constant fall in the goldilocks gravitational hold of our star, that put the stardust into conscious existence and eventually subliming into the thing called love. This miracle will succumb to transience, taking uncountable trillions of years to scatter into oblivion.

Take a good look.

Permanence is in transience.

Live well.

Rejoice. Cherish. Thrive.

Life is magic.

Happy Father’s Day!

Love

– Brij

June 1st, 2023, marks the end of an era. In September 1999, with great enthusiasm and a unique camaraderie, we opened Bakersfield Heart Hospital. In its nearly 24 years of existence, BHH distinguished itself as a place of excellence and elegance where the sick went to heal. BHH has been our pride, our identity. It has been a temple where we saved thousands of lives and delivered state-of-the-art medicine to those in need. The changing healthcare environment denied BHH continued sustainability as a standalone boutique gem.
Alas, BHH has come to the end of his life cycle. BHH is no more in its original spirit but survives as an AH facility. We at CH will continue to serve our patients’ needs irrespective of the hospital they end up in, but today there is a slight mist in the eyes.

– Brij

Mary Ann Williams frequented her husband’s grave, a Confederate officer from Columbus, Georgia, who fell to the Civil War. Mary Ann decorated the deceased husband’s grave, and her daughter inspired her to lay flowers at the graves of all fallen soldiers. The sentiment caught up in many Southern states and soon came to be commemorated as Decoration Day to honor, mourn and celebrate the dead soldiers.
The practice quickly spread to Northern US; in 1868, John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic declared it a Memorial Day for all the fallen soldiers, confederate or Union. Memorial Day has survived the “appropriation” charges of some of the leaders in the South. After WW II, Memorial Day became more or less universally accepted over Decorative Day. In 1968, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday on the last Monday of May to honor all the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country’s good.

As the long weekend occasions, family gatherings, BBQ, and the usual commercial excesses, it ought to compel us to recognize the day’s solemnity.

Mary Ann Williams started a tradition that blurred the divide of the Civil War with a noble tradition that commemorates the sacrifices of all who laid their lives that a grateful nation honors on this day.
As the divisions remerge, this day should also remind us that we are all Americans. Our differences are beneath us, and the bonds that bind us are stronger; if not, we stand to default on the debt owed to the fallen soldiers.

As I remember, I say a silent prayer: Together Better.

– Brij