On Friday night, my Uncle David passed away after a long battle with Parkinson's. I didn't know him very well, simply because he was Finnish-American and didn't talk much. I can only recall one conversation I had with him, almost thirty years ago, when he stopped over at my place before heading up to Mt. Baldy for a solo hike.
I admired him from afar, though. He was an inventor, thinker, athlete, photographer, pianist, writer, and overall Renaissance man. After working as an inventor at 3M for many years, he retired and devoted himself to his many interests. He read physics books for fun.
Uncle David at 60
David embodied the Finnish term sisu. It translates roughly to inner strength, or endurance, or resilience.
Uncle David did all his own home renovations, with no help. He ran marathons until his knees said otherwise. He solo hiked all over the country. At 60, he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. By himself. As he said in his online blog about the journey, "Lately I’m realizing more and more that in my remaining years I want to live my life to the fullest extent possible. I don’t want to grow old some day and look back on my life regretting all the things I never did. So now is the time."
Photo of Glacier Peak by David Koskenmaki
And yet nothing interfered with his family relationships. He was beloved by his three children and his wife Rosalie, my favorite aunt, who passed a few years ago. David was a gentle man who didn't mind putting on an apron to cook dinner. His legacy was quiet and solid, just like sisu.
Rest in peace, David Koskenmaki.
Art Heals
I think Uncle David would have loved this one. Thanks to technological advances, and the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, we can now view paintings like Rembrandt's The Night Watch in incredible detail.
This is the largest and most detailed photo ever taken of a work of art. It's 717 gigapixels, with a total file size of 5.6 terabytes. The team used a super high-resolution camera to take 8439 individual photos measuring 5.5cm x 4.1cm. AI was used to stitch these smaller photographs together to form the final large image. You can zoom in directly from their interactive page here.
And here's a similar page for Vermeer's Girl With A Pearl Earring.
Detail of "The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq" by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642.
