I have lived a charmed life, made so by moments of magic. I'm 86 years old, healthy and happy. I have not yet spent a night as a patient in any hospital. I've had two personal relationships that were important to what I am today.  I'll keep these private. I've accumulated more than 3 million air miles, mostly on Star Alliance. Been on a dozen, or two, cruises. Have had maybe 15 around the world trips. Written five books. Worked on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence for NASA. Wrote the the legislation that became law for hydrogen when I worked in the U.S. Senate. In my 27th year of retirement. Not sure who said SOMETIMES MAGIC CAN HAPPEN IF YOU TRY.  Checked with various AI sources and got nothing. In a way, though, that thought has driven me through most of my life.  The first time was when I was a junior in high school.   That was 70 years ago. Through all of my life as a student, I was just above average.  In my sophomore year at McKinley...

On Sunday, I indicated that my life had three 27-year periods after the age of 5, and provided details of the first trio, but only got through high school.  Today, I will complete this initial educational cycle with Stanford University, an important learning experience in the Hawaiian sugar industry, then graduate school. So in 1958 I left Hawaii for the first time. My brother by then was working at the Naval Civil Engineering Center in Port Hueneme, California.  I stayed with his family that summer, for he secured for me a summer job at this center. Stanford was a challenge, for I was below average, again, in all facets of life, sociologically, economically and intellectually. There were no Black students, Hispanics were not yet even identified and I was the only student of Japanese ethnicity. Actually, there was one Black in 1891, the year the school opened, Ernest Houston Johnson.  He graduated in 1895 in economics, but sadly died of tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of ...