From the cowardice that dare not face new truth
From the laziness that is contented with half truth
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
Good Lord, deliver me.
— Prayer from Kenya
Let life be enough
A video from our sunrise “elk ride” at Harriman State Park in eastern Idaho three years ago. Crank the volume way up for this one. Nothing brakes the morning silence like an elk bugle.
When I get the chance to sit quietly in a café with a book, I feel like Kevin feels with hotdogs on the beach.
I’ve sometimes thought of doing a post series after things Meghan says called That’s Not A Euphemism. Today’s That’s Not A Euphemism is brought to you by Banyan Tree, the most delicious food truck in Maine:
Mind if I dip my naan in your butter chicken?
Failure to call shotgun
Joseph Weizenbaum (1987):
I don’t quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use.
[…]
One can’t escape this state without asking, again and again: “What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?” and ultimately, “am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?”
As it’s quoted, this is about as good and important a statement about the average person’s use of, language about, and complicity in technology and its effect.
Without that middle ellipsis, however, it’s a little more specific — and a lot more frightening.
“I can reach it.”
In the final analysis [history] can be understood and illuminated only by sympathetic insight.