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Re: What do you say to people?

Subject:  Re: What do you say to people?
  Date:   Thu, 8 May 1997 17:00:19 -0400
  From:  "Thomas McGahee" <tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com>
    To:  "Tesla List" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>



----------
> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
> Subject: What do you say to people?
> Date: Tuesday, May 06, 1997 12:29 AM
> 
> Subject:   What do you say to people?
>   Date:    Mon, 5 May 1997 09:07:59 -0400 (EDT)
>   From:    Jeremy Bair <pwac-at-flinet-dot-com>
>     To:    tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>     CC:    pwac-at-flinet-dot-com
> 
> 
> When someone approaches you with these question:
> 
> "Why? Why would you build such a crazy device?". or
> "What purpose could this device possibly have for you?".
> (I'm sure you have heard a thousand other variations)
> 
> How would we respond? I am asked this MORE than enough times maybe
four
> or
> five times a day, depending on who is around. I've been asked by my
> parents, by friends, and by some nosy teachers (like some who have
seen
> my
> strange photographs, you know, of my secondary, my caps etc). 
> 
> I simply respond something like:
> 

Ask them why they watch their favorite show on TV.
Ask them why they watch re-runs of stuff they've already seen. 
Ask them why they watch sports.
Ask them why they play sports. (and if they say because of their
health, don't believe it)
Ask them why they like chocolate.

We like coiling because we like it. Not everybody does. Some people
have no curiosity, no deep desire to know and to play and to have fun
with the crazy things that we find so fascinating.

Many people find it strange that I read so many books about science
related topics. But they do not think it strange that they spend MUCH
more money on cigarettes, trashy romance novels, or candy bars than I
do on my beloved Tesla coils that are made mostly from stuff they
would consider trash.

> "I'm recreating an invention by a famous inventor". or
> "I am expanding my knowledge in a very entertaining way". or
> "Mind your own damn business, teacher!".
> 
> I'm interested onto what other people think.
> 

I like the "I'm expanding my knowledge in a very entertaining way"
answer. Some people do not know the JOY or learning something new.
What they so often call "learning" is only short-term memorization.
You have only learned what you really KNOW. Not what you can repeat,
but what you understand.

Sounds to me like some of your teachers (maybe all of them) have
neglected to make the JOY of Learning the center of their courses (or
their lives). If YOU ever become a teacher, don't be like them. Draw
like minded people into the joy of your world by sharing the
experience of it with them. 

Don't expect that you will find that many like-minded people around
you. But when you find them, treasure their friendship. One good
friend that shares your joys can make up for the hundreds of zombies
that you have to deal with day in and day out. 

> Another note, my mom saw me carry in a 10' x 100' roll of 6 mil 
> polyethylene, she stared for a while, and when she came in the
room, she 
> saw I had unrolled some 10' sections to make into a rolled cap. She
> asked 
> the questions, I told her "Don't worry about it mom", and she went
into 
> this whole FBI coming to the house thing.
> 
> I asked her later (after I rolled the cap... What? Do you think I
would 
> stop in the middle? ;) "Mom, why are you worried", and she
responded, 
> "You have very strange hobbies". But I don't think this is strange
at 
> all, I mean, if there are organizations, mailing lists, and
hundreds of 
> web paging dealing with the subject, I don't think its very strange
at 
> all! To think, 24" sparks possible on my first coil.. WOW.
> 

Yeah, well, I am sure that the mothers of most of the members of this
list are STILL trying to figure out what the heck their sons are up
to. And that is long after the sons are grown into men.

I assume that you are not into the violent overthrow of the
government or any such thing that might actually warrant an interest
on behalf of the FBI. Many of us here on the Tesla list also have
interests that move in the direction of the explosive and strange and
well, just things that others are not as fascinated by. If I say
x-rays, Van de Graaf, Tesla, Particle Accelerator, diffusion pump or
polypropylene to any of the members of my community, they just stare
at me in disbelief. I pity them. They don't know what they are
missing. So just enjoy being who you are, and welcome to a group that
will make you feel right at home.

> A new response to the above questions that I developed is:
> 
> "Hold your hands apart, about 2 feet. Imagine a solid white
crackling 
> spark connecting your two palms together..."
> 
> I found they responded totally different, they seem to take a
different 
> attitude to the whole idea of me spending time and money onto a
"small 
> simple stupid (sometimes dangerous) device".
> 
> We need to make a stand, prove to the world that Nikola Tesla
didn't die
> in vain (or maybe murdered?), his AC induction motors, and his
> florescent
> light tubes, and his other many inventions including the Tesla Coil
> aren't
> small, nor stupid, nor simple, nor... well, maybe dangerous :). 
> 
> The man was a genius, and hardly anybody knows of him. I saw the
other
> day
> on the Discovery Channel a very good production on the life a
struggles
> of
> Albert Einstein, very nicely done, but I have yet to see a Nikola
Tesla
> picture. I think a full length or at least a discovery channel
length
> movie sould be made about him. Maybe this has been done, can
someone let
> me 
> know if it has? 
> 
> Thank you for a moment of my opinion.
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
> |Jeremy Bair IRC:DeadBatry
> |Email: mailto:pwac-at-flinet-dot-com mailto:deadbatry-at-cycat-dot-com or
hotmail-dot-com
> |Web page: http://www.flinet-dot-com/~pwac
> |Phone: 561-585-4165
> |
> |
> 
> <     Thoughts? Comments? Notes? Please place below this line    
;>

OOOOPS! I put most of what I had to say above the line, interspersed
with your post. Yeah, I get sick of the adulation given to Edison,
and the disregard afforded Tesla. But hey, Edison was a natural born
American, and Tesla was from some country with a foreign sounding
name. He was American, but not American born, and that has something
to do with it. That and the fact that most of what Edison did was
very practical and easy to understand. Tell people Tesla invented the
polyphase system, and they look at you with a blank look in their
eyes. Of course, and why not?? The poor individuals in question don't
even know what the polyphase system IS, much less have any interest
in how it actually works.

Don't give up or give in. You are not strange. Only different from
most of the people you know. But very much like many of us HERE!

Fr. Tom McGahee