U who are greatly unique
and highly unusual.
The three U’s of unusual
one up the tu of unique.
There should be a
museum of the unusual U,
where certainly there’d
be long queues on Tuesdays.
And of course ed-U-cation
to be found at the U of U
for the highly unusual and
greatly unique U.
We may be energetic and restless as a people
but we are also static, and bound to our homes.
We move on with great difficulty, but we move
on in mass and until we find ourselves home again.
Goodbyes are tearful, some can never be said,
Memories, legacy and purpose abandoned to hope.
We who are the fortunate children of past migrations
Potato famines, wars, persecution, gold or adventure.
We should naturally sympathize with the plight of
millions on the move, for they are who our ancestors were.
But alas, many would rather pull the ladder up with us
when we leave the bottom, in the name of national security.
We would define our world and there’s as if they were
something alien and unworthy of the hope and dreams we have.
We are no different, we are they, but for the sake of fortune,
and someday their children and children’s children will be us.
The next wave is here, changing us forever, resistance is both useless and unfair. Life is precious and so is unwavering hope.
In a quest to discover,
turning over boats to
find which will float,
suitable for a journey.
Chasing streams of
consciousness, as
ideas float or sink
along a narrow brook.
Finding white water
of turbulence, with its
boulders of challenging
upending ideas.
Bouncing and bumping
toward an open sea
imagining control of
the uncontrollable.
Into an estuary, life
and thought slows,
imagining just maybe,
finally, life is settled.
But still there is an
open sea to come,
with an eternity
of flowing dreams.
We live in an era of the great
devaluation of decency and responsibility.
Truth is malleable to fit the moment,
and deflection covers accountability.
Power trump’s values and cult-like
faith excuses logic and reasoning.
For we apparently have lost our footing,
slipped into an abyss which echos irrational thought.
As it steals the rights of other for the disowning
of liberty as was once our fervent national quest.
This is not the “our-time” I would have wished for
with such a dearth of compassion and thoughtfulness.
I wish for Christian values in an unholy time
and for Socratic reasoning in a chaotic rhyme.
And wish and hope for the next generation
to rediscover faith, logic, reason and compromise.
Does it mean incredible
or incredulous?
Expressed because of scarce event
or is it scarcely expressed?
Is it to say tell me more,
or there’s no more to say?
If you have this figured out,
then all I can say is Wow!
It has a two in it, never a one
following the start of a week
without the fun of hump day
penultimate to Thursday in obscurity
without the respect of pay-day
nor the fun of a weekend day of golf
fishing, or other activity, and there
is no worship or football set-aside.
Never has a holiday… Thursday refuses to
give up Thanksgiving… maybe once in awhile
a Christmas or New Years shall fall, but
it is always with reluctance a day of fun
should prevail, before being sent back to
obscurity for years to come….
even birthdays are put-off until the
a Saturday or Sunday celebration.
Nope Tuesday is the working day, the
sad, so-far-off-the-weekend, the Monday
hangover gone, might as well just buckle
down, for workday productivity,
but never fun, not even the downhill run.
Tuesday is a day for seriousness,
or at least it seems, but one never knows
what might be hiding in the heart of
Tuesday, maybe, just maybe a vacation day?
Somebody, long ago named today Tuesday,
and so it remains, someone owns such a legacy,
for it had to have a name,
it couldn’t just be named Thomas,
or something like an ordinary random name,
and we must name things,
and then the world revolves around such things.
What made Tuesday different from Monday? or Wednesday?
… and how do we know we’ve kept track correctly
since the beginning of calendar-week time-keeping?
Could this really be Thursday as it was intended, and somewhere along the way someone slept through some random two days?Maybe not in a row but over a millenia, is this not possible?
Well if we can agree to call this Tuesday, then why is it so hard to agree to so many other things in this crazy world?
We are a strange race of semi-intelligent creatures,
it is good we have something like naming to provide
order to the chaos of our time.
…. I know the day is Sunday I’m publishing this…. or is it really??
For the grace of routine
gives our minds a rest
providing life momentum.
Without it life would be
overrun by everything,
everywhere all at once.
Further it allows us to be
astonished, when touched
by something beautiful and new.
And for a moment we may
stop momentum, and breath in
the extraordinary.
I played with the natural language AI open access ChatGPT a bit, and last week posted a poem it was able to write on a subject I previously wrote about “Playing Catch”. Additionally I asked the AI to analyze poems, and to explain scientific discoveries. The program was able to represent emotion, and be creative in producing the poem.
Also with respect to analyzing a poem, ChatGPT was able to understand and represent very well the thoughts behind a poem I wrote, including nuances which I would expect to be hidden from a rules-based engine evaluating creative writing. Thoughts which were as much subconscious as well as conscious when written were revealed… this is both intriguing and scary.
I think of the rapid emergence of AI to be much like the arrival of an Alien Species to Earth. I would be incredibly excited about what an Alien lifeform would bring us in terms of science, technology and insight about the universe we live in… and at the same time… I would be extremely worried about the intention and the compassion or lack of compassion of an alien intelligence.
I would not expect an alien species nor AI to want to subjugate the human race, as it would likely have evolved beyond the exploitation of lifeforms just as we have moved beyond slavery as an economic model. However, power and preminance is something which could be assumed, as we would be viewed is weaker in so many ways. Would a more advanced technology / intelligence look to exploit our weaknesses? Or rather enhance our strengths? Also, would our very human need for power, seek to exploit advanced technology and intelligence for personal power and wealth over others of our race? Most assuredly, as it is clear we have not advanced sufficiently to be mostly an altruistic, compassionate and social species… and as was noted by P.T. Barnum… “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
So maybe, it would be best to be cautious about how we approach and use this very alien capability… which we invented, and is evolving fast.
How very interesting!
I thought I’d ask an AI application to write a poem about playing catch… Chat GP.T.. this is what it came up with in 20 seconds… freaking amazing:
Playing Catch
Two hands outstretched, a ball between
The thrill of playing catch, a timeless scene
A game of back and forth, a simple pleasure
In the midst of life’s hustle and bustle, a moment of leisure
The sound of the ball hitting leather
The wind in your hair, feeling freer and better
The joy in your heart as you make a perfect catch
A moment of triumph, nothing can match
The rhythm of the game, a dance of sorts
A language unspoken, but understood in all sports
A bond between players, a shared connection
A moment of unity, a moment of perfection
And as the sun sets and the game comes to an end
The memories made will forever transcend
For in playing catch, we learn about life
The ups and downs, the joy and strife
So take a ball, find a friend
And play catch until the very end
For in this game, we find so much more
Than just throwing and catching, it’s the memories we adore.