Teaching Elementary, My Dear Watson

54 - Hope

54

Hope

Saturday, June 17

Kevin and Jasmine met at eight. The day looked stormy, though it felt warm due to a tropical front moving north from the Gulf of California. Jasmine asked, "Do you have layers if it rains?"

"Counting on it," said Kevin. "I was a Boy Scout, so I'm prepared, at least usually. I once met a traveler from Sweden at a Mountain College gathering, and as we became friendly, I teased him about the weather in his country. He was smiling when he responded, 'We have a saying. There is no bad weather in Sweden, only bad clothes!' I've never forgotten that, though I don't want to live through Scandinavian winters regularly."

Jasmine smiled, nodding."Agreed. I like it warmer than polar bears do." She wore jeans and a UCLA t-shirt. Her boots looked worn but solid, and she pulled on a navy blue windbreaker. Her hair was pinned up underneath a baseball cap, blue with a gold UCLA on it.

He asked, "Did Jodi and Johnny ask you to remind me where y'all attended college?" She laughed.

To decide whose car to take, they flipped a coin. Kevin won and elected to drive.

Jasmine said, "My father works for Hewlett-Packard. Did you know they also flipped a coin when starting the company? Had the coin landed on the other side, it would have been named Packard Hewlett."

They began to drive out of the city, onto the highway that snaked up Eagle Mountain. "How did your father end up working for HP?"

"He grew up in the city of Karachi, in the 30s and 40s. His parents were merchants, and after World War II, they could afford to send him to England to study at Cambridge. In 1947, India gained independence."

"I read that Gandhi was sad that he couldn't keep it unified. It split mostly along Muslim and Hindu lines when they drew the borders, true?"

"Yes. My ancestors were Hindus in what is now Pakistan. Many became refugees and tried to move. But others stayed where they were born. There were lots of riots between the religious groups. My grandparents were killed along with many others, both Hindus and Muslims. Such a waste."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you. It's ancient enough history, but it is sad. My father no longer had a home to return to, so he applied to Stanford's electrical engineering program when he finished his undergraduate studies and was accepted. He later earned a Ph. D. there and got a job with HP. Both of the founders were also Stanford electrical engineers, so there was a kind of pipeline. My father worked on the first successful hand-held calculator, HP's innovation that replaced the slide rule."

"Wow, that's impressive."

"It helped pay for lots of tennis lessons." She and Kevin both smiled. "Anyway, it's part of why my father spends more time thinking about the future than the past. Have you ever heard of Steve Wozniak?"

"Isn't he the engineer who partnered with Steve Jobs and started Apple Computers?"

"Yes. He was working at HP when he came up with their personal computer idea. My father says he was honest, and that Wozniak offered his idea to HP five times since he had done work on it while he was employed there. But they declined, saying they were not interested. Now HP is rethinking its decision and looking to make its own personal computer. They were wrong on that one! But my father says it makes no sense to second-guess such a past decision. Look forward, like you would with your next play in a poker game."

"It's kind of like my divorce," said Kevin. "I don't regret falling in love, but it doesn't help to think of what might have been. I just have to learn from it. So in the future, I'll make sure that my partner and I share certain core values, such as beliefs in the value of children, a commitment to communication, and a conflict resolution process."