Uncle John Atanasoff, father of the modern computer; being the odd one out

’90s rapper Coolio in 1-15-09 news credited extraterrestrials with computer science and jet planes.  “You think [technology] came from this planet?“ he asked?  Well, I know it did because my uncle was John Vincent Atanasoff , the American physicist known as the Father of the Modern computer. He invented the first automatic electronic digital computer and in 1990, President Bush awarded him the U.S. National Medal of Technology, the highest U.S. honor for achievements related to technological progress. Google him.

He’s my uncle because my mom’s sister married his brother.  Aunt Leslie and Uncle Hachet, whose real name was Raymond but he had a distinct facial profile so everyone called him Hatchet.  My cousins in Tampa are all Atanasoffs.  And we all knew of Uncle Hatchet’s mad scientist brother who was famous in that weird scientist kind of way.

Every family has that odd one out, don’t they?  The one that breaks the mold and goes against the grain?  The one that delves into all sorts of things that no one else understands?   You’re probably the one in your family, if you’re reading this

The path less traveled is just that, less traveled.  Not everyone wants to walk that lonely path.  You notice there are areas of your life that you can’t talk about with certain friends or family members and so you stay off those religious or political or whatever topics with them.  But that makes for a lot of superficial talk, and you’re just not into that anymore.  Yes, it’s social, it’s polite, but it’s neither constructive nor fulfilling for you.

You are left alone with your thoughts and ideas on those topics, sometimes with no one else around you - for years - sharing those views, or with whom you can discuss them.  You read everything you can on the topic and still don’t find much outside interest, so it is indeed a lonely path you are walking here.  It is a time of great incubation, where the Universe has designed it so that you have time alone to keep you from disbursing your energy until you have sufficiently built it.  With no one to talk and discuss with, your thoughts and ideas will have time to gather and brew, and you are likely to have profound meditations at this time.

That’s usually what is going on with the eccentric family member.  That quiet one at the table may simply have a very active life - inner or outer - elsewhere.  Outside the interests of friends and family.  That places her off to the side of the hamster wheel and gets her labeled as the odd one out.

I guess that makes us all the O3’s right?

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