“...lived out a special determination to make every day Earth Day.”

Hi Gina
It is both of our 40th college reunions this weekend.  Wow.

Beth and I are heading to Amherst for mine.  I guess it is a big one. I mean the 50th is a milestone but I think the attendee “drop off rate” will increase from here going forward.

How did we get so old?

I love the quote in your speech last year at UMass Boston: “you don’t have to be rich to have a big impact.”  Very true.  This year you can return to enjoy YOUR 40th without being in the spotlight.

Here is a cool session my class is sponsoring:

Follow the Water: the Ocean Worlds of Our Solar System



Surf's NOT up on Enceladus

You’ve heard about the discovery of liquid water on Mars. But did you know that Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn, has geysers that spout liquid water into space, contributing to the formation of one of Saturn’s rings? That the condensation and freezing of water powers major storms on Saturn and Jupiter that thrust vertically over 100 miles in altitude and cover a surface area the size of our own planet Earth? That Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has hydrocarbon lakes and maybe even an ocean of water deep below the surface? That NASA’s forthcoming Europa mission will probe that icy moon’s subsurface oceans for signs of primitive life? In this talk, Kevin Baines ’76, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “follows the water” to describe what planetary scientists are learning about the ocean worlds of our solar system. Presented by the Class of 1976.

Hope you can get to and have fun at your reunion.  These events are great equalizers, where we aren’t retired college VPs or EPA heads, we are wiser and better-developed versions of our teenaged selves.
PS: great John Kerry quote about how you: “lived out a special determination to make every day Earth Day.” Let’s do it on Earth – how about in the Upper Hudson River even – instead of outer space.  Leave that to “Gizmo” Baines!