Sunset sailing on April skies
Bloodshot fire clouds in her eyes
I can’t say what I might believe
But if God made you he’s in love with me

– Five for Fighting

Max Ernst: 33 Girls Chasing Butterflies

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In prayer we express deep penitence and contrition for our shortcomings, using sorrowful and self-accusing words. And this often in all sincerity. But, at other times, we are not really much disturbed about it; or, at least, not nearly so much as our heaped-up language would imply. What we imagine that we are achieving through this unreality I do not know. We shall not fool the All-wise; nor induce Him to believe that we are anything other, or better, than we actually are! Were it not saner to tell Him the truth, exactly as it is — not that we are overwhelmed with sorrow for our sinfulness, if it is not so; but rather this, that, to all our other sinfulness, we have added this last and crowning sinfulness, that we are not much worried about it, or, at least, not nearly as much as we ought to be. Be pleased, in pity, to grant us such measure of sorrow for our failures as will lead us to a true repentance; and, through that, to a new way of life.

[Short.]

What it was called was the Sense Ontology, or just Sense, really. “You Sense?” was the simple question people asked each other. Sense was something of a wonder drug: wherever the ontology was applied, to just about any given circumstance, it improved the operation of that AI, sometimes quite dramatically. It was like an organization principle that organized all other organization principles, and made them therefore that much more efficient when in turn they were applied to their own domains of situations. Not only that, but as the name implied, it helped to figure out in the ontologies that were affected, more of what would make AI actually intelligent. Outcomes now anticipated that had often been overlooked when originally concocting these operational interpretations that chugged the digital world along, and sometimes profound effects were truly realized.

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[Short.]

Somewhere, someone thought up an ontology, and remained anonymous. Perhaps you could say it was because of this anonymity that we hardly mention people at all, here in the text. One can only guess why he or she decided to remain unknown, but there you have it: we don’t know who or why they did what they did. It was one of those viral phenomena, which sometimes tends to be something of an emergence in the phenomenon sense; one might even believe that it formed from the work of more than one hand and mind — maybe there were many who thought of pieces of it, improved what what was there, what began as almost trivial, and then passed it on. But as it came to pass, this interpretation, this organization principle, traveled the world over, whatever parts of the world knew about ontologies at all, and were hip to the newest trends. And this is what this story is about.

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If all else fails, what you are left with is a test. Maybe of character.

love is never lost
even if sometimes its home is in the hurt
however far the love must travel
it closes any distances as a touch from one to another
this is not a dream, nor is it a mistake
to feel is never wrong
love can fill any space that life forgets
you need only see it has always been there

Being free is not being a slave to your whim. It’s doing everything you want to do, and not doing anything you don’t. The only question is, what do you want to do? What don’t you? Being free is something akin to not selling out, where what you want to preserve is your integrity, and you keep it. That is freedom. This is what it means to be born not of the flesh, but of the will of God. What those who do not have eyes to see can only perceive is someone who adheres to the rules of the good, and being a slave to what is right. But that’s the whole point of the good: it’s not the good if you don’t freely choose it of your own free will. The other side is being the subject of any random animal impulse that pops up. This is akin to walking through life unconscious. This would be what it is to be a waste of humanity.

All is quiet on New Year’s Day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year’s Day

– U2

Giorgio de Chirico: Comedy and Tragedy

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[Short.]

This story is not about people, as one might be led to believe that all stories must be. Not one human has any dialog in this story. And perhaps, because of this fact, the story is quite short, and is merely descriptive of what happened in the course of the functioning of the world. It is true that people have much to do with the functioning of that world, and it might even be that what this story is about was all due to the existence of these human beings, but one must understand that the things which come into the hands of these beings so easily gets out of hand, and truly was never in their control at all. This story is actually about an idea, and the idea came about because of something someone thought up, but it was never thought by a human being, not once. About the way that the world worked, and quite natural, even if it belonged purely in the realm of the artificial.

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The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day “evangelist.” He announces a Saviour from hell rather than a Saviour from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.

dreams flooded down from the moonlight and drowned the passerby
divided man against his brother, we fought and did not know why
one prophet spoke of the end, the other: no, the beginning

All we know of time is change.

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
                – Thomas à Kempis

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.
                – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.
                – Jim Rohn

You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages.
                – Mignon McLaughlin

Do not confuse your vested interests with ethics. Do not identify the enemies of your privilege with the enemies of humanity.
                – Max Lerner

Sometimes it’s more important to be human, than to have good taste.
                – Brecht

Never undertake anything for which you wouldn’t have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven.
                – G.C. Lichtenberg

All life seems full of vain repetition. And chasing after wind. Even dreaming will get old, if you let it. We become jaded when we stop noticing things. As we feed our need for sensation, we grow accustomed to the thrill of it all; and while that is actually useful for such things that require a dangerous series of attempts to perform (I would say that a bomb squad would qualify), if we let the riches dull our ability to feel what is before us, we are much like a ghost in the material world. For it is up to us to stop and look, stop and listen, and smell, and touch: feel for instance the smoothness of a blank piece of paper. How it ripples when shook, that particular brand’s small scent. Do yourself a favor and stare at a lit candle. Do you remember when the mystery of fire so fascinated you? For youth is still within us, however long we progress, just that we need to search for that trigger which reminds us of the miracle of this day. Of this hour, this very second.