Edward Beneville

Born Nov 12, 1938 at Flower Hospital, Queens, NYC.  At that Time I was given the suffix, “Jr”, then grew up in wonderful Mountain Lakes, NJ, & graduated from Cornell University (in 4 yrs) with a nearly perfect Gentleman’s “C”.  I spent a little more than 3 years with the US Navy, reached the rank of Lieutenant, entered the insurance business, entered the stock broking business, re-entered the insurance business and sort of retired.  I have left some footprints on this planet and am generally pleased with the course my life has taken.  I have a wonderful wife who is still with me and who has parented five children far better than I could have.  My kids are great, my grandchildren amazing; I am indeed a very lucky guy.

At Cornell I became familiar with Voltaire, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell (among others).  Jung held for a while a belief that new ideas, the insights that materialize seemingly from out of nowhere, are resident in a kind of cosmic protoplasm that pervades the universe and is occasionally touched by a spiritual connection that conveys them to a sentient being.  Jung later abandoned that idea but I still think he may have been on the right track.  Here with us are savants and more normal geniuses who seem to be “connected”.  For example Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician who saw things that no one before him had ever seen.  Or Andrew Lloyd Weber whose musical compositions are so hauntingly beautiful.  I think it’s fair to postulate that Math is the language of God and that music is an expression of that language .

Joseph Campbell became famous with Hero With a Thousand Faces, influenced by Jung’s suspicion of archetypes built into human consciousness.  Campbell’s influence rubbed off on George Lucas and came to life in Star Wars, which I believe to be the most transforming film ever made. “Trust the Force, Luke”.  I see the Force in the certainty that observations change outcomes, and in the as-yet-unexplained paradoxes of quantum physics.

Voltaire taught me that a great deal of what is said to be so by “authorities” is total nonsense.  For example, what Al Gore does not know about the causes of climate change speaks loudly for the quality of education at Yale.

My dad was a great man and I will never regret being his “Junior” although I did harbor some resentment at being referred to as “Young Edward”.  Sometime in my early 40’s I reached into Jung’s protoplasm and pulled out the realization that being “Young Ed” while upwards of 40 was a great thing.  “Junged” (obviously pronounced “Young Ed”) is my tip of the hat to Carl Jung.

To know me better and/or to review my professional credentials, please see my CV and visit my "blog" at www.junged.net or my (sort of) public service website at http://www.CaptiveInsurance.info