Tag: books

An Inspiration

How and why people change during a lifetime can be illuminating. Evolving can be exciting, challenging, chaotic, and, simply, scary. What’s important is that it happens.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis decided, after a career selling Kodak copiers, to attend Princeton Seminary and become a minister. As the first Black senior clergy at Manhattan’s Middle Church (established in 1628), she has led a multicultural, progressive congregation through its individual trials and an especially public fire. One of her seven books, Fierce Love, espouses living life, exactly as she says—“fiercely.”

Dr. Lewis divides her book into three sections—“You,” “You and your Posse,” and “You and the World.” She enlarges each of those with three chapters, each titled with a facet of her philosophy:

1. “Love Yourself Unconditionally—It all starts here.”
2. “Speak Truthfully. It will set you free.”
3. “Travel Lightly. Downsize the burdens you carry.”
4. “Show Kindness and Affection Wildly. Make fierce love real.”
5. “Confront Boldly. Transform your circumstances with Moral Courage.”
6. “Think Inclusively. They’re your people, too!”
7. “Live Justly. Choose fairness and equality every day.”
8. “Find Joy Purposefully. It is the water of life.”
9. “Believe Assiduously. Have faith in love.”

In a recent interview with Dr. Lewis, the Rev. Dr. Bill Kerley, from the United Methodist Church in Houston, asked her how she could have hope in these turbulent contemporary times. She has seen many different sides of humanity, even within her own family’s negative response to Caucasians, including her two white husbands. Yet, she still believes that we all need each other, and thoughtful awareness will one day infuse all of us.

She concludes her book with these words: “I want to convert you, to convince you, to proselytize you. I want you to believe with me in our shared capacity to make a better life and a better world, together. I hope you’ll believe assiduously in love, in the fiercest love of all.”

If I lived near her church, I would consider joining her congregation. After all, such a positive message, spiritual rather than “religious,” would be both appealing and refreshing. Generally, all we need is joy and love to survive—and thrive. . . . Search for her on Google to see how much she has accomplished for the communities with which she has been connected.


Hedy Lamarr

Who was Hedy Lamarr, and why should I want to know?

Well, first answer: because of her, I was wringing my hands in distress yesterday when my wifi router quit working.

Second answer: without the trajectory of her life—father who interested her in how things worked; gorgeous “trophy” wife sitting quietly at Viennese dinner tables listening to Nazi sympathizers discuss weaponry and torpedoes; meeting Louis B. Mayer in London (after escaping her possessive husband in 1937); becoming friends in Los Angeles with aeronautics engineer Howard Hughes; and afterward encountering avant-garde musician, George Antheil, we might not have the basis for wifi, cellphones, GPS, or Bluetooth.

Labeled “the most beautiful woman in the world,” during the 1930s, Lamarr hid genius behind her flawless face and focused on inventing the one thing that dramatically shapes our lives today. Richard Rhodes, in his biography, Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, reveals her creation. Throughout her cherished acting career, she entertained herself at night not by going to Hollywood fetes but by creating practical items at her home engineering table—a used-tissue dispenser, a light-up dog collar, a swiveling shower seat for the elderly, and much later, a “driver-friendly” traffic light. But they are among her minor creations.

Discussions with Antheil revealed their mutual love of invention. German torpedoes that sank American ships carrying many children and George’s own brother dismayed the two. American torpedoes, however, often missed their targets. Antheil had coordinated six player pianos in an early composition, and Lamarr understood weaponry. They realized that remote control of torpedoes without enemy interference was vital. Antheil’s coordinating of six player piano rolls became the underlying concept to controlling communication between transmitters and receivers. They designed “frequency hopping,” a method by which remote transmitters and receivers could randomly change their radio frequencies in tandem, thus denying the Germans detection or interception. 

The National Inventor’s Council approved their invention, connected them with a Cal Tech engineer, and granted their patent for frequency hopping in 1942. When they approached the Navy with their invention, the Navy’s disdainful response was that they couldn’t “put a player piano in a torpedo.” Even though the idea worked, the Navy’s refusal to implement their  patent placed it with other discarded inventions in a “top-secret” file.

When looking for a secure way to communicate with submarines in the 1950s, a Sylvania engineer discovered their expired patent for frequency hopping, realized its value, and developed it. During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, US warships used frequency hopping to prevent Soviets from signal jamming. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fully accepted it and began requiring it as the way to secure radio communication. During a time of limited radio signals, frequency hopping became the standard for connecting car phones before graduating to wifi, cell phones, GPS, and Bluetooth.

Not until 2014 did some engineers realize that Hedwig Eva Kiesler, one of the patent’s two owners, was none other than Hedy Lamarr. They subsequently nominated her to receive the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award in 1997. Then the Invention Convention’s Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award acknowledged her. Not willing to appear in public at her age and jeopardize her reputation as “most beautiful woman in the world,” she asked her son to accept her award. She never received any money for her work and commented that “It’s about time” for her recognition. She transitioned in 2000 but was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. Now she holds the title of “the mother of Wi-Fi,” and by fiat, of cellphones, GPS, and Bluetooth.

Can you imagine life without the inventive genius of Hedy Lamarr? And people thought she was just an extraordinarily pretty face, someone in Lamarr’s words, who only had “to stand still and look stupid.”