Thus I Came: Short Stories That I Have Been Privileged to Relate

By Tien C. Lee

This book, Thus I Came, is a collection of short stories which I have been privileged to relate. It starts with the joy of parenting and grandparenting pre-kindergarteners; it bounces back to my childhood memory as one son of a politcal prisoner; it recounts how my Mom survived as a poor, uneducated, de facto single mother of four children in rural Taiwan; it high-lights the ordeals my father had suffered during his five-year journey through the hell of political prison as well as his post-prison rehabilitation and inevitable bankruptcy; it briefs the struggle along my family lineage in the past 200 years; and it touches some unexpected events (in my military service, professional career, and life experiences in USA) that shaped me into a better, more mature and productive person.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483467207

Tien C. Lee

Tien C. Lee is an Emeritus Professor of Geophysics at the University of California, Riverside, California, USA. He was educated as a geologist/geophysicist. He has published peer-reviewed articles in seismology, geoelectricity, hydrogeology, potential field, and terrestrial heat flow. He has also published two books: ‘Applied Mathematics in Hydrogeology (1999)’ and ‘Thus I Came -- short stories that I have been privileged to relate (2017).’ Since his retirement in 2009, he has engaged in writing a book about his rock collections for the general public. It is a show-and-tell book, intended to inspire storytelling, real or imaginary, about commonly available rock specimens for rock hobbyists and enthusiasts as well as aspiring geologists.

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THUS I CAME

Short Stories that I Have

Been Privileged to Relate

TIEN C. LEE

Copyright © 2017 Tien C. Lee.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6721-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6720-7 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 03/22/2017

PREFACE

Everyone has a past; some of it is memorable but most of it indeed is lost intentionally or unintentionally. The present flashes through, leaving little memorabia of the past. Elusive is the future, harvesting only karmas seeded before the present.

Here is a collection of short stories which I have been privileged to relate personally. Each story is unique but not an extraordinary, shocking event. First I share with you my joy and fruit of parenting and grand-parenting – the innocent wisdom of toddlers and pre-kindergartners. I hope my recollection can relight the fun memories of your own as a child, parent, or grandparent.

Next, I describe the struggle endured together by me as a pupil and my mother as a de facto single mother with my three other younger siblings, subsequent to my father’s handcuff to a political prison run by the Nationalist Chinese in Taiwan. For survival, my mother had engaged as a migrating, transient farm laborer, forester (weed scraping and seedlings planting), and construction worker. In between she lost a land-lease right through her brother’s chicanery; and she was arrested once and publicly humiliated for chewing sugar cane while collecting cane sheaths (leaves) for kindling to firewood. After a near-crippling fall with the collapse of construction scaffolding when I was in the 4th grade (1952), she involuntarily changed her career and transformed herself to run a small one-person eatery. A few years later amid her misdiagnosed chronic illness, her own business withered to an end as my father’s post-prison carpentry business expanded.

Meanwhile during my primary school years, I had wandered, skipping some school hours daily, for nearly one year between the rice paddies with my baby sister strapped on my back in search of my mother for breast feeding. I was reprimanded for picking fruit unethically but awaken to shedding my shame as one son of a prisoner. I was arrested once for attempting to steal national treasury – fire wood. I pulled weed (purslane) from other people’s gardens to feed pigs; I gathered frogs, lung fish, and fresh-water clams for supplementary nutrients; and I peddled by roadside or from village to village for pitiful profit to help my mother. I rebelled once against one teacher for unmemorable cause that ended in his repeated slapping on my face; and I earned a day-long shaming chalk-tattoo on my face from another teacher for doing others’ homework in exchange for school supplies. I remember one of my two sisters fell, figuratively under my watch, into a sewage ditch along a dirt road outside my backyard; I pulled her out and cleaned her in an irrigation ditch on the other side of the road; she died sometime later for unknown disease. I remember my kid sister was then banished to a new, small frontier hamlet with my Mom’s adoptive parents for the sake of her survival. She suffered mentally in childhood development because there was no other child around in the hamlet for interaction.

I wept once and apologized to my Mom for downgrade in my school performance; and my mother, with tears in her eyes, lodged privately a helpless complaint of unfairness in grading because of my family’s political and economic background. Nevertheless, endowed with an illiterate mother’s instinct, she comforted me with a life-time motto: Pay no attention to class ranking but ask yourself whether you have learned something. Fortunately, that motto together with a benefactor teacher’s inspiration in my 5th and 6th grade somehow propels me, the only pupil in my poor rural school, to college through a bumpy path dotted with financial and legal hiccups, and eventually to becoming a professor in an American university. It was all a dream I had never dared to dream as I grew up until realization.

I abridged and translated my father’s memoir on his five-year journey through prison hell, his post-prison rehabilitation and business struggle, and his inevitable bankruptcy when I was a graduate student. To my children and grandchildren and on the basis of my father’s painstaking chronology and verification, I also highlighted the good and the bad of my struggling ancestors and ancestresses in the past 200 years.

In addition and outside my academic carrier paths, I chanced upon some odd experiences, especially acquired during my one-year stint as an army officer, which collectively molded me into a better and more mature person.

About the cover picture: The no-name tree and birds were painted by my mother at her advanced age. I cherished its primitive presentation, signaling her state of simple mind and endless wishes for the family tree to grow with unending cheer by the birds. Birding happens to be the hobby of one of her grandsons. The photo at the lower left corner is her first great-grand son JJ, occasioned upon his two-year-old birthday when he incidentally jumped in front of, not over, the ice-skating rocks, which were then stuck in a go-and-stop mode along individual tracks during the intermission of the perpetual, recurring, natural ice plays in a playa (dry lake) of Death Valley National Park.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part A: PRE-KINDERGARTENERS’ WORLD

A1: LOGIC

A2: DIPLOMATIC SPEAK

A3: HALF-FULL BOTTLE

A4: GOOD BITE

A5: THREE DISCOVERIES

A6: MANDARIN DUCK

A7: A SPARROW

A8: GOPHER SNAKE

A9: ENDLESS WHY’s

A10: A HIGH ACHIEVER

A11: A PROMISE

A12: C U G

A13: THE BEST REFUSAL EVER

A14: GREAT GRADNDMA’S FUNERAL

Part B: MY MOTHER AND I

B1: STRUGGLE FOR SURVIAL

B2: QUALITY WORK

B3: PROUD OF MY FATHER IN PRISON

B4: FEEDING PIGS AND …

B5: REINCARNATION OF CHICKEN

B6: FAMILY SPLIT AGAIN AND AGAIN

B7: STEALING NATIONAL TREASURE

B8: PUBLIC HUMILIATION

B9: CAREER CHANGE

B10: VENDOR ON THE MOVE

B11: FAIR GRADES

B12: SELF-TESTING ON TALENT

B13: AT DAWN

B14: BIBLE SCHOOL

B15: THE END AND BEGINNING

B16: TRAIN RIDE 06:19

B17: SAVED BY DELUGE

Part C: MILLITARY VENTURE

C1: AWOL

C2: BATTLE FIELD

C3: DEAR COMRADES

C4: CRISIS MITIGATION

C5: POLITICALLY INCORRECT

C6: A SELF-IMPLODED LOBSTER

Part D: MY ANCESTRY

D1: 1ST OR 0TH

D2: HAS BEEN HERE, A MONKEY BUISNESS

D3. GOAT MOTHER AND KARMA

D4: HERO OR VILAIN

D4a: A Feudal War

D4b: Ensnared by the Dead

D4c: The Art against Banditry

D5: CONSPIRACY

D6: INFANTICIDES

D7: THE HAUNTED MALIN CANYON

D7a: Friendship in Time of Crisis

D7b. Crushed by a Flying Hill

D7c: Murder and Torture

D8: FENGSUI WARRIORS

D9: THE ERA OF FOUR LEGS

D9a: At the Beginning

D9b: Near the End Line

D10: GONE THE DOG, COME THE PIG

D11: A JOURNEY TO THE HELL

D11a: Laughingstock

D11b: Interrogation

D11c: Evidences

D11d: Melting Pot

D11e: Conviction

D11f: Appeal

D11g: Mass Execution

D11h: Joy in Soldiers’ Prison

D11i: Rehabilitation

D11j: Scorched Island

D12: RECKONING

Part E: WHAT NOT

E1: HISTORY FABRICATED

E2: CAMPUS SPYING

E3: THREE MAD MEN

E3a: Madman 1

E3b: Madman 2

E3c: Madman 3

E4: FIRST JOBS

E5: CHARITY AND HONESTY EVERYWHERE

E5a: Free Drink

E5b: Free Food

E5c: Cashier Checks

E6: SAVED BY THE ENEMY

E7: CHEAT ON RED LIGHT CAMERA

E8: ONLY A MOTHER WOULD

E8a: A Devil

8Eb: Unfit for Caring

E9: MEDICAL TIDBITS

E9a: The Good

E9b: The Good Sequel

E9c: The Bad

E9d: Mass Cancer Therapy

E9e: The Ugly

E10: SEE NO COMMUNIST

Part A: PRE-KINDERGARTENERS’ WORLD

A1: LOGIC

In October 2010, my wife and I flew with our son CY, daughter-in-law SS, and their first son JJ to Hawaii for vacation. While we were sitting around a dining table in a restaurant, a waiter gave one spoon to each of us. JJ, who just turned one year old, had the habit of liking to hold something in both hands. Unable to speak yet, he raised his open left-hand toward the waiter and made a gesture for one additional spoon.

His mother smiled, raised one spoon up, and firmly proclaimed, One spoon only! At this prompt the rest of us also held up the spoons and repeatedly said One only, one only! JJ was stunt by the refusal. He lowered his hand. The waiter moved on.

One moment later, JJ gave his spoon to his Grandpa (me) who sat next to him on his right. He then raised both hands and twisted left-to-right, right-to-left to signal he had nothing in his hands. He thereupon extended one hand toward his Grandma who sat across the table from him. Grandma gave him her spoon.

I was about to forward one of my two spoons to my wife. But, JJ acted fast. He turned around and hand-gestured to ask for his spoon back. At this moment, his father CY burst into a big laugh and said, What a trick, JJ, you have played!

We all laughed spontaneously. JJ showed indifference to our laugh. He had his two spoons.

Remarks:

Was it JJ’s play of instinct to end up with two spoons? A yes answer would be the end of the story: JJ has initiated a game of rotating spoon.

Or was it indeed a trick schemed by a thirteen-month old toddler? We all learn that language skill precedes logical mind. Can you explain how a toddler, who is barely capable of uttering something like daddy and mommy, plays such a trick to get hold of two spoons?

Certainly a toddler before he can speak is capable of having something done on his own or holding your hand for help to have something done. This is innate without nurturing.

A2: DIPLOMATIC SPEAK

One day in the fall of 2012, my son dropped by to have his son JJ stayed with us for a weekend. After bathing him, Grandma put pajama on him.

Grandpa commented casually, JJ, your pajama is beautiful. Who bought it for you?

JJ replied promptly, Mommy! Grandpa thought that concluded the question and answer.

One moment later, JJ corrected his own answer, No! Daddy bought it.

Oh! ya! Grandpa responded without giving further thought, either.

JJ paused for a longer moment, then, gave a final answer, Mommy bought the shirt and Daddy bought the pants.

Remarks:

We all know pajama is sold generally in an inseparable set of shirt and pants. But the two-and-half year old toddler does not know it as a fact. I am sure he doesn’t know who bought the pajama either. He could have said both parents bought it but his father and mother do not always shop together. Instead, he offers an unexpected solution. His parents ought to be pleased with the illogical but diplomatic compromise.

A3: HALF-FULL BOTTLE

My wife used to tell our grandson JJ that Grandpa is old because he has white hair and that JJ is young and has black hair. She also reminded him sometimes that Grandma was getting too old to hold him up and meanwhile she complemented JJ that he was growing bigger and stronger every day. The three-year and three-month old kid was probably confused by the perception that Grandpa and Grandma are old but Grandma’s hair is still black, not white. Both of us were 69 years old then.

One day in January of 2013, we took JJ to visit San Diego Zoo Safari. After I had lifted him up at a few venues for him to better see the zoo animals, JJ shouted out loud over my shoulder: Grandpa, you have some black hair. You are not old! Like JJ, you have black hair.

That evoked some laughter among the spectators who glanced over my salt-and-pepper hair.

Remarks:

A partially filled water bottle can be half-full or half-empty, depending on one’s perspective. If I may say something with grace, JJ took a positive stand to comfort his Grandpa.

A4: GOOD BITE

When my kids were at pre-kindergarten age, we lived in a house on a hillside orange grove. Frequently my wife and I hosted kid’s get-together parties. A few days after one of those occasions, I chanced upon the mother of a kid at an office parking lot around 7:30 a.m. She and I exchanged greetings as usual.

Then, she spoke, Your son CT bit my son DL during the last party.

I was caught off-guarded by the accusation. I looked at her and apologized profusely, I am very sorry. I was not aware that CT had bitten DL. Meanwhile I pondered, how could I settle with my colleague over my son’s biting of her beloved DL?

Calmly and slowly, she said, Please do not apologize. I am not complaining against CT. On the contrary, I would like to convey my appreciation of CT’s biting of DL.

What? I did not believe what I just heard. How could this episode be!

She continued, Since CT bit him, DL has stopped biting his elder sister. We could not stop DL from biting his sister from time to time. CT has done it for us because DL now realizes that everyone has sharp teeth. Please tell CT my sincere thanks.

What a surprise, happy ending!

Remarks:

I did not tell my son CT the biting episode. Both CT and DL have no memory of the biting, I presume. Sometimes a bad event may turn out to be better than you have anticipated.

A5: THREE DISCOVERIES

In the summer of 1976 I led a group of students to assess geothermal resources in the Salton Sea area of the Imperial Valley in southern California by measuring heat flow through the lake floor. I brought my 20-month old son CT with me to the field because I wanted to lessen my wife’s burden of taking care of one toddler and one two-month old baby. My students and I would launch one boat into the lake to make measurements and triangulate its position with two land-based theodolites. I monitored one theodolite and directed the operation through radio communication.

Upon arrival at the southeastern end of the Salton Sea (an inland saline lake, not sea), CT spotted a lot of fish on land and rushed toward the shore after getting out of the car. He shouted excitedly, Fish! Fish! ….

Being concerned he might put the fish carcass in his mouth, I pulled him back and moved the equipment to high ground away from the fish-strewn lake shore. On the way, he kept murmuring, fish, no water. I could not explain in a way that was understandable to a toddler why the fish were dead and why they were washed ashore. I also was at loss of conveying the concept of death -- dead and decaying fish. So I ignored him. His murmuring reflected his discovery and the puzzle of fish without water, I presumed.

I set up an open tent covering the equipment and vehicle. My monitoring site was near the foot of an obsidian hill, paved naturally with debris of volcanic rocks. I let CT play on the sandy ground under the tent. Around noon time he was still playful with the sand. I asked him, CT, what have you found?

He answered, Big rocks become small sands. I was amazed at his observation. He had smashed some small rocks into finer pieces too. So, I asked him again to make sure what I just heard. He repeated his discovery and conclusion.

Later in the afternoon, we decamped. While packing up, I told CT that we were going home but in fact we were going to a motel for the night. I did not tell him the truth because I was unable to convey the concept of motel to him.

Upon checking into a motel room, CT said, This is not home. No Mommy!

I was very well taken by his remark of no mommy. I felt sad about his third finding of the day but said nothing in response. I set CT on the bed and went to wash my hands before I could clean him up. When I got out of the wash room, he had fallen sound asleep. I realized that I had over-stressed a toddler despite the fact that he had taken two naps in the car.

The next morning we lost a coring device overboard while the boat was on station making a measurement of geothermal gradient. We quit and went home. The corer was on loan from Occidental College and hence we should return it or pay back. Two days later, my students and I came back (without CT) to the Salton Sea and navigated the boat to the lost site as guided visually with two onshore theodolites. One student recovered the lost corer during his second scuba diving into the lake bottom (water depth about 30 feet). We used this incidental lost-and-found record as one proof of quality assurance for station positioning.

Remarks:

Do not overlook those trivial observations and linkages: fish free of water, small sand originated from big rock, and mom symbolizing home. They demonstrate human’s innate ability of doing independent thinking and discovery. It is a challenge to all parents how to cultivate their youngsters from such trivial discoveries to become scientists or any professionals for that matter.

A6: MANDARIN DUCK

We frequently take our grandson JJ to the Arboretum of the Los Angeles County, well known for its collections of plants and peacocks. As part of the routine, we visit its Baldwin Lake to watch fish, turtle, and water fowl. Common in the pond are mallards, American coots, wood ducks, and Canada geese (resident). Occasionally we enjoy seeing black double-crested cormorants dive into water to scoop up fish; we watch black-crowned night herons, ignoring our presence, wait patiently at water edge for their target fish. Once we were lucky to have observed and photographed a great egret standing next to a dozen turtles resting on a fallen tree trunk, which stuck out of water at other side of the pond.

One day as we approached our favorite observation point – on a fallen red wood tree trunk, JJ started to jump up and down (his typical behavior when he is excited) to greet a flock of water fowls coming toward us. He shouted out loud, One chicken is coming.

The Grandma spotted it right after. It was a rarely sighted mandarin duck in Baldwin Lake. She corrected JJ, It is a mandarin duck, not a chicken. But JJ insisted it was a chicken. That was his first sight of a mandarin duck. The golden feather (gorget) around the throat looks like that of a rooster. Thereupon, Grandma and JJ engaged in a repeated naming exchange between chicken and mandarin duck.

Finally the wise Grandma cracked the debate. Chicken does not swim in the water; duck does. JJ was silent for a while; then he asked, Why can’t chicken swim in the water?

The wiser Grandpa jumped into the conversation, Because the chicken does not have web between toes.

What is the web, Grandpa? asked the three year old JJ.

Immediately Grandma pulled out an iPad from her backpack. To his satisfaction, JJ saw the pictures of the webbed and web-free toes on the screen.

Then, he challenged his grandparents, Why doesn’t chicken grow web to swim? We pondered about the answer but ended up saying nothing.

And JJ retorted further, I do not have web. Can I swim? That was a new challenge. Apparently he was concerned with his on-going weekly swimming lesson. The answer to this question posits a double edged sword of words. An affirmative answer would negate the idea of web as a swimming necessity for chicken; and a negative answer, on the other hand, would invite another question why a swimming lesson was in order for him. I did not believe JJ was sophisticated enough to pose such a question with dilemma in answer.

The Grandparents cast a silly look at each other but assured him, Yes, you can learn how to swim.

In our heart, we do not have the answer and we have not done a good job of explaining his ‘whys’. Would you? Can you!

Remarks:

Sometime ago I read on the internet a Japanese doctor’s crappy comment, as cited by others. And, let me paraphrase it, If you think swimming can help streamline your figure, do you like your body to shape like a whale?

We learn that whales were once land mammals tens of million years ago. At what point in time and place, did those land animals venture into the sea to evolve eventually into marine animals? Did they start from a deranged couple with herd followers? Was it a species-wide migration into the sea or just some individuals? Now there are many species of whales (counting dolphins and porpoises too). Are they all descendants of one common ancestor couple? As the offspring grow in population, they spread and some establish their new lines of succession (species) all in the sea. Or, can some of the whale species originate from different species of land animals and streamline themselves? If so, what were the environmental cues that inspire or compel those various animals to jump into the sea, to survive and stay there forever, and to evolve eventually into what they are now? How did they lose limbs and grow fins? Was there an intelligent designer? How many animals had failed in the endless evolutionary journeys? Has anyone ever documented an animal is now in transition from land to marine life, or vice versus?

Apple’s iPhone revolutionized the cell phone from ‘dumb’ to ‘smart’. Several brands of smart phones have since sprouted in the market. Are those brands (species) the evolutional offspring of iPhone? Or, do they represent some parallel evolution?

Having gone through those analog thought processes, I still cannot answer JJ’s question: Why doesn’t chicken grow web to swim? Perhaps some chickens had evolved into mandarin ducks by adapting to aquatic life and growing web as a consequence but others stay as land chicken. The ‘chicken’ dabbles into water part time and evolves from web-free chicken to webbed mandarin duck. Could it happen? Only time will tell. Now, whatever you may think, please do not quote my speculation for an authoritative assertion. I only post questions without answers.

A7: A SPARROW

Together with our grandson JJ, we visit Desconso Garden of the Los Angeles County frequently. The Desconso is located on the northern hillside of the Verdugo Mountain, with its north edge bounded by an affluent residential area. Besides various plants and flowers, it also hosts a Japanese Zen style garden, an art gallery, and ponds. It runs a children’s delight – train ride (not daily though). Its seasonal flower blossom has attracted many visitors. We often wander in the woods to find various kinds of beautiful but not consumable mushrooms.

Usually JJ follows his Grandma’s lead in the trip and I stay behind on the trail. As he gets a little older, he has his own favorite scene and new venture. One day, JJ turned from a paved trail into a side, infrequently-travelled trail; and I followed. Within tens of steps on the side trail, a bird flew off all of a sudden. Startled, he froze on the spot.

He watched the fly-away bird. Then, he turned around and said, Grandpa, it is a sparrow. I replied, It is not a sparrow. Uncharacteristically, JJ said nothing in response. The bird was gone.

We retreated back to the main trail to catch up with his Grandma. For the next few days, I noticed that JJ did not call out any bird’s name.

Remarks:

I shouldn’t have hastened to deny his observation. A flying bird is hard for an adult to identify, let alone a startled, three-year old boy. I thought about apologizing to him but I did not because he might not remember what had happened. He was certainly frustrated, at least, doubting his identification skill.

This episode raises the question whether or not to correct a kid’s mistake. If yes, how do we proceed properly such that we do not suffocate a kid’s idea or storytelling? Or worse, destroy a kid’s curiosity and confidence. Do you correct a kid’s mistake every time it happens? Is the mistake trivial? Or sit back and count on the kid to find out his/her own mistake later.

Raise the stake one notch higher. If you see a kindergartener or pre-kindergartener is bullying other kids in the public playground, do you intervene if his guardian is not in sight or unwilling to stop the bullying? If you do, you risk being accused of harassment. Indifference to misbehavior at kindergarten level is probably seeding the bully in the primary and secondary schools. Where is the balance? Child bringing is a challenging art, and you can hardly predict the outcome. Most will succeed and unfortunately a few would fail.

A8: GOPHER SNAKE

One day in the spring, when I was digging holes to track gophers in the yard, my grandson JJ in the living room asked his grandma, What is Grandpa doing?

Grandma replied, Grandpa is trying to catch gophers for several days. He is yet to get one.

JJ was excited about my prospect of catching gophers. Accompanied by his Grandma, JJ came to see my digging. JJ said to his Grandma, That is too much work. Ask grandpa to get one gopher snake. The snake can go into tunnels to catch gophers. Grandpa can’t. He is too big.

Remarks:

It is a good idea for a three-and-half year old. I have never thought about using gopher snakes to control gopher infection in the yard. To experiment and practice, where can I purchase one gopher snake? Not pet store. Perhaps I can buy one through internet quest. Is it legal and practical to release snakes in the yard? If the snakes do the job of catching gopher, what do I do with the snakes afterwards if I can retrieve them? Sell the snakes at discount as used creatures or sell them at premium for their time-tested performance.

A9: ENDLESS WHY’s

Once we were out with our grandson JJ in the L.A. Arboretum. It was close to five o’clock and it was time to go. JJ asked, Why? I don’t want to go home. I want to play.

I said, It is getting dark. We have to go.

JJ questioned, Why is it getting dark?

I replied, The sun is setting. There will be no sun light for us to see things.

Why?

It is the nature.

Why does the nature do that? I was sure JJ did not understand ‘nature’. But what can I say to a three-year old boy who has yet to get some sense of living in California or standing on a spherical Earth?

I wish I could rhyme, Sun, sun, stop setting! Little JJ wants to stay and play. …

Can I talk to him on a self-rotating Earth for the cause of day and night? If JJ were much older, one could lecture him on planetary motion by invoking Newton’s law. But what is the limit of the why sequence?

Remarks:

The beautiful Newton’s law of universal gravitation stipulates that the attractive force between two mass particles is inversely proportional to the square of distance between them. That beauty is cast in the decimal system. If an alien uses a binary or octonary system, how is that square (2) going to change? Will the law still look mathematically concise and beautiful? How lucky we are on the