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079
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Transcription
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WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
What is this thing we call the mind? We say that it is in our brain, but the brain can still exist and the mind be gone. Is our physical being an illusion?
The first time I had the idea that I might be missing something important came from an experience I had in 1930. Verna and I were living on the ranch, and drought damaged our corn crop that we needed to feed the livestock that winter. To salvage the crop meant digging a pit silo, and cutting the corn to fill it. We had all the equipment we needed to do this, and in three weeks time we dug the pit silo and filled it.
The problem was to get the silage from the silos into the feed wagons. For $150 I could buy a lift that would do the job, but in 1930 where was I to get $150. I had grown up on the ranch where we made much of the equipment that we used, and I had taken Agricultural Engineering in college, why not do it myself? I got my drafting board and drawing equipment, and took the measurements I needed to reach the silage, For two days I cut lift arms, and fit pulleys and ropes.
The next day Harry, the hired man, helped me set the improvised lift over the silo. When feeding time arrived, we hitched Bob to the singletree and rope that would pull the load from the silo. Harry went into the silo and filled the barrel, but when we pulled the load up it wouldn't dump in the wagon, I had to do it by hand, so I went back to the drawing board, and made changes. For two weeks we used the lift, but we might as well have used a ladder and carried the silage out on our backs. Why can't I make this work?
One night I had a dream, it was so vivid that I wakened with a start, THERE IT WAS, the lift, right in front of me. I thought some one said to me "Put two more links in the chain and set the catch at an angle." I got out of bed, went to another room, and lit the kerosene lamp and looked at the clock, it was 3:30 a.m. It was too early to get up, but I knew that I wouldn't sleep, so I got out my drawing board and designed the lift as I was instructed, by this mysterious voice.
As soon as it was day light I went to the shop and made the suggested changes. I had to wait until feeding time to find out if this was the answer.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
