Dell the Actuator.

Different types of actuators.
Dell obviously spent a lot of his time in thought.  Usually, it was in trying to solve a problem but could also be musings about whatever was running through his mind.  He liked to analyze things, taking them apart in his thoughts, and reorganize them anyway way he liked.  Whether examining a mechanical problem or trying to better understand a person, he could reflect using his experience and observations from a distance.

I once described to him something I was working on.  He recognized the systematic way I was looking at it and immediately put it into words.  He said, "I call that walking around a problem."  In my mind's eye I could see the essence of it.  The idea was to virtually place the issue before you and look at it from various points of view.  You could mentally explode the image to see its components and manipulate them in whatever way you wanted.  It was essential to have a good working knowledge of all the parts, and it didn't matter if we were talking about a machine, person, or philosophical concept.  The key was to carefully visualize every conceivable way of achieving a goal using each part of the whole, whatever that was.

One of the things he must have done was to reflect on who he was and what his function was in life.  He told me that he thought of himself as an actuator.  I had no idea what that was, so he patiently explained it to me.  It was a device, or person, which caused a series of events to proceed once activated.  That was him in a nutshell.  He didn't have to be there to make something happen, but he could facilitate it through a variety of means.  He could motivate people to achieve some goal.

A good example of that happened during the events that led up to my first camping trip with him.  It was Easter Weekend and the 4 days were perfect for camping.  Clear weather was forecast and the snow would be a memory by the time we were done.  The only snag was that I had a paper due on Tuesday and couldn't shirk it.  It was time for the actuator to kick in.

We got all my stuff needed to complete the assignment, a pot, and some rope.  I was ushered into a room and Dell used the rope to tie the door shut; there would be no escaping.  You can imagine what the pot was for.  So there I was, nothing to do but complete my project, with the reward of freedom and the promise of camping hanging in the air.  I worked on it until the wee hours of the morning but finally finished.  Friday morning came and we got our stuff together and headed out.  It was to be the first of many memorable camping experiences.

Dell was an actuator.  Before committing to an action he would walk around the issue and come up with a solution.  Then, using whatever he had available, would initiate some event to achieve the goal.  It didn't have to be him doing the work as my camping experience indicated, but he was the force to get it moving.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen


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