The First Electronic Church of America
S A I N T S &
B I R T H D A Y P A G E
May 27, 1997
Saint Of The Day:
Rachel Louise Carson
Rachel Louise Carson taught us about the environment. She was both a scientist and a writer, serious at both, good at both. A reviewer for the New York Times wrote that rarely "does the world get a physical scientist with literary genius." But Miss Carson challenged the notion that science belongs in "a separate compartment of its own, apart from every day life." The aim of science, like the aim of literature, she said, is "to discover and illuminate truth. If there is a poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry." In her early years, she worked as a junior aquatic biologist for the U.S.Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, DC, one of the first two women to be hired by the Bureau in other than a clerical capacity. But then, in her spare time, she started writing for magazines. A piece in The Atlantic Monthly called "Undersea" led to a book offer from Simon & Schuster. Under the Sea-Wind was the result, published in 1941, just as the war broke out. The book was almost ignored, until ten years later, when Miss Carson's next book, The Sea Around Us, was serialized in The New Yorker, and became a best seller. Then, so did a re-published version of Under the Sea-Wind. Miss Carson's most influential book: Silent Spring, also serialized in The New Yorker. Silent Spring started out as a treatise on the dangers of DDT. It ended up as an indictment of all those who were poisoning the earth, air, and waterways on a worldwide scale with toxic chemicals of all kinds. Her work was violently attacked by the agricultural chemicals industry. But Pres. John F. Kennedy endorsed Miss Carson's position, and led to the beginning of the modern ecological movement.
MODEL: Miss Carson's industry. She was not a flashy writer (any more than she was a flashy person). She did careful research. She wrote slowly. But she got the job done, effectively, and, a bonus, poetically.
Your Birthday Today:
May 27
Day of the Driver
Gemini
Pros
Amusing, Tenacious, Worldly
Cons
Depressive, Uncouth, Self-oblivious
For duty and humanity. If you were born on May 27, you are either devoted to a cause or group, or dedicated to personal development. In either case, you dive into your task and usually specialize in a field for life. You have a drive to communicate, so presentations are common at the completion of your work. Ruled by the number 9 and the planet Mercury, you can be pushy and intense.
Twisted thoughts. You have a warped view of the world, and your off-the-wall sense of humor can take others aback, especially since you speak whatever is on your mind. Your lack of timing is amazing and tells others that you just don't care. But this may not be true. Often you are so engrossed in your presentation, you don't read your audience correctly. You have great influence but the responses you provoke bewilder you.
Tunnel vision. You are so dedicated and tenacious, you may forge ahead in your chosen occupation for years without recognition and may eventually succeed. On the flip side, you can be blind to your weaknesses and continue to make mistakes over and over again.
Changes of life. At a pivotal point in your life, usually at the first Saturn return (age 28-30) or at your mid-life crisis (40ish), you must make an important career decision. You will probably live with this decision for the rest of your life.
Some advice: Criticism can be constructive. If you can't listen to others, listen to your inner voice. The reactions you cause are trying to tell you something. Learn from them. Try to define and improve your faults. Don't lose your nose to the grindstone, take frequent vacations.
Also born on this day: Edwin Morris (historian) Louis Gossett. Jr. (actor) Isadora Duncan (modern dance pioneer) Henry Kissinger (German-born US presidential advisor) Hubert Humphrey (US vice president) Harlan Jay Ellison (science-fiction writer) Julia Ward Howe (author, feminist, philanthropist) Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade creator) "Wild Bill" Hickock (US marshal, frontiersman) Sam Snead (golf champion) Vincent Price (horror-film actor)
