5 ms·
Something special happens when one reads a piece of such ineffable beauty. Beyond thought or specific emotion, we are affected, taken to some other undefined pl
by OneWordSoln 7y ago
Something special happens when one reads a piece of such ineffable beauty. Beyond thought or specific emotion, we are affected, taken to some other undefined place. It happens very rarely for me, perhaps due to my lifetime of tech-oriented pursuits, but it certainly happened to me today and I am thankful for Ms. Gannon's soul-bearing work of beauty.
On another note and only because I am a paying, very satisfied customer, I have to recommend MasterClass. I was originally simply interested in watching Gary Kasparov's chess class with my 10yo son, but when I saw the list of experts in writing, music and media production, we decided that $90 for one class was inferior to $180 for a year of all the classes (and we live in public housing so this was no easy investment). It has been an outstanding decision. I literally did this within the past week and watching Judy Blume and Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood with my 12yo daughter has been nothing less than revelatory. I also have enjoyed Will Wright and Herbie Hancock and Malcolm Gladwell and Frank Gehry and Hans Zimmer; excellence and passion inspire us. The production on the classes is its own master class in educational video creation in the internet age, but their choice of educators is its own special kind of genius.
My favorite, however (and surprisingly, to me), has been the poet Billy Collins. We need more poets' hearts in this digital world of MBAs ruthlessly squeezing the populace and our beloved Mother Earth for everything the laws they crafted will allow. I applaud Victoria Gannon for her wonderful piece of poetic prose. Her poet's heart has inspired me this morning and I need all of that I can get in this world of callous competition.
- satokema 7y agoHe had found a Market-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Reply button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's taste buds, a spectroscopic examination of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment.
- OneWordSoln 7y agoWhen one tells the truth there is no guarantee that the listener lives closely enough with the truth to recognize it as such, the filters of their life often obscurring the simpler reality that some few others choose to inhabit. All that is important is living and telling one's truth because, in the end, most people don't even know who Dunning & Kruger are, let alone that McArthur Wheeler bears a great resemblance to the vast majority of humanity in the early 21st Century.