The Tulip Boy - Keukenhof, April 12, 2012

Longing and Looking Forward to the New Narnia

The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked like it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean.

It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is because it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

Narnia - Last Battle

Zeke is already hearing Lewis

Psalm 103

¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass, 
   they flourish like a flower of the field; 
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone, 
   and its place remembers it no more. 
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting 
   the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, 
   and his righteousness with their children’s children— 
¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant 
   and remember to obey his precepts.

Zeke is Here and Opa is Blij

Zeke is here in Holland 

In his way to Angola

Life in the fast Lane

May you be a blessing to many - - - with your smile and joy

and as you learn the beautiful Portuguese language 

and perhaps in the future you can talk to Vovo sometimes

when his English and Dutch become incomprehensible
"I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate, Vovo Paulo” 

Here you can practice your Portugues

One Playful Evening

Listen to the Youtube song as you read the story below:

There are few more depressing places than the lounge of an interstate Holiday Inn on a Friday night.  On weeknights the businessmen are still around, and they come in and give some life to the place.  But on Friday, those that can have managed to get home.  And, since the hotel is on the interstate, and far from anywhere, there aren't very many locals to take the businessmen's place.

That night was like a scene from a Billy Joel song.  A few scattered, leftover men were attempting to drown their sorrows while a rock band tried to generate some enthusiasm.  All were unsuccessful.

About half an hour later, there was a noise at the front entrance and about sixty people in their twenties came charging in.  The momentum began to pick up at once, and as the evening wore on, things got livelier.  A few couples began to dance and managed to get the businessmen to join them.  Soon there was improvised line dancing, which required us to move the tables.

The band caught the infectious humor and its performance level picked up several notches.  Later yet, a conga line started growing, extending around the room and even out into the lobby, drawing desk clerks and waiters into its rhythm.  As the line snaked back into the lounge and the music hushed for a moment, one of the band members yelled out, "This is great!  Who are you guys?"

The crowd shot back, "We're evangelists!"

Sadly, the evening ended all too soon after.  We'd been in staff training down the road all week and had simply taken a break.  We had to get back so we could get up early the next morning for further training and Bible study.

Did anyone become a Christian that night?  Not that I know of.  But nobody there will ever again think about "evangelists" in quite the same way.  "Evangelists" will now mean people who are great to have around, no matter what you believe.  Those young Christians were people you'd want at your party, especially if things were looking bleak, just as Jesus, according to the Gospels, seemed to be the type of person who was invited to many parties.


And, oh yes, one of the band members did become a Christian the night after..

*story as told by Paul Marshall in Heaven is Not My Home

He is Risen

Narnia reminds us of the feeling of hearing the good news - - - 

" - - - one of the children felt something jump in his inside - - - Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realise that it is the beginning of the holidays." 

Indeed, He has risen.  

O Senhor ressuscitou.  

Christ is opgestaan.

Bis-Oma's Orchids

Welcome Alexandra

Alexandra is Born

Alexandra - A feminine form of Alexander, means

 "protector of man."

May the Lord indeed equip and use you to care and protect all Hisl children (sons of Adam and daughters of Eve) as you grow in wisdom and understanding of His Love.

o 

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Ps. 127:3

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.” CSL


"Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullabye
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me"BJ


VovoOpa and VovOma


and now to all our 
Children and Grandchildren
Ana, Pri, Adrita, Ruth
Bella, Benny, Lilly, Zeke, Lesky, Lexi

And to my greatest love and loving wife, mother and oma
 I sing

Harmonics: A Sign of Problem or Stability? Thinking of Models

Harmonics:  A Sign of Problem or Stability? Thinking of Models

In electrical engineering harmonics are just mathematical / artificial components which can help us to  analyze and understand certain electrical phenomena.  But is this the end of the story?  I humbly submit there is more than that behind the scenes.

Harmonics may have indeed some much more profound meaning.  They seem to be related and express the stability and order of the physical process that generates them.  And for this simple analysis let us go back to ancient scientific models.

From antique Greece to the medieval times -  circular / harmonic movements are related to the eternal stability of the Unmoved Mover.  The idea of a desire, love or appetite of the physical reality to be closer to the Source - led them to think of perpetual motions - for which the most perfect figure was a circle and hence, harmonically built.

These spherical movements are the basis for planetary harmonics - carried “by love, by intellectual desire, never satisfied because they know they can never completely assimilate themselves to their object, and never frustrated because they continually do so to be the fullest extent  which their nature admits or requires.  Their existence is thus one of delight.  The motions of the universe are to be conceived not as those of a machine or even an army, but rather as a dance, a festival, a symphony, a carnival, or all these in one.  They are the unimpeded movement of the most perfect impulse towards the most perfect Object.”

Can this perspective be of any help for power engineering? 

In electrical engineering, however,  the thing is a little more complicated, but nevertheless, let us try.

When a quasi-perfect sinusoidal voltage source is disturbed by a non-linear excitation (resulting from an energy conversion process, for example) the resulting current  can be visualized as a sum of harmonic components (a fundamental + higher frequencies – thanks to Fourier).  And although the higher frequencies can be annoying to the electric grid they themselves maybe a sign of the stability of the energy conversion process.   

Thus, using the medieval model, they can be seen as a symbol of the harmony within the physical energy conversion process and the desire of all higher frequency components to maintain closer to the original source,  via integer multiples of its circular movements.

Perhaps one could go even further and explain resonance as the natural / self-ability in nature to maintain, within bounds, and for as long as possible, the energy available between physical elements, via the production of a harmonic exchange of energy.

Anyway, the ancient and medieval models are certainly scientifically outdated, but they can still delight us - - -   few constructions of imagination have such integrated splendor, sobriety and coherence  – and perhaps, sometimes, they can still help us to visualize certain things by giving us intuition insights that cannot be derived purely from mathematics.

Some may say this is totally irrelevant and too philosophical, religious and metaphorical and that modern physics is direct and objective - - - but what about the “curvature of space”?  - - - -  I accept it, but it sounds more like the old definition of God – “a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. “   

Without parables and metaphorical language modern science cannot speak to the masses.

I hope no one will think that I am recommending a return to the medieval model  to study electrical engineering :-) – I am only re-affirming that different models may reveal different aspects and all models should be respected (even when they are obsolete) and non-idolized.

Meanwhile, let us continue to unfold the physical reality of electrical engineering and create more detailed models for harmonic studies and the grid of the future, but let us not forget  that “nature gives most of her evidence in answers to questions we ask her.  Here, as in the courts, the character of the evidence depends on the shape of the examination, and a good cross-examiner [or power engineering researcher] can do wonders.  He will not indeed elicit falsehoods from an honest witness.  But, in relation to the total truth in the witness’ s mind, the structure of the examination is like a stencil.  It determines how much of the total truth will appear and what pattern it will suggest.”

Harmonics can indeed be a sign of problem, but they also express a profound order  - - - "The beauty of electricity  - - - [is] that it is under law " said the great Michael Faraday.

Cheers,

Paulo

PS – Phrases under quotes are from The Discarded Image (CS Lewis)