liminal_luke

Your friend sounds great. How wonderful that you were able to teach him and he was open to being taught. Yeah!

Pride is the Wrong Word I´m a gay white man. What would happen if I say that I´m proud to be white? My fellow Bums would likely get a lot of use out of the new "oh boy" emoji. I might be banned from the board for being racist -- and rightfully so, I think. What would happen if I say that I´m proud to be gay? On the whole, I´d wager the reaction would be a lot more positive. And yet being attracted to other men is not like winning the national tennis championships -- it´s not a soaring personal accomplishment. I didn´t train hard daily, sweating through grueling workouts, in order to think that Brad Pitt is hot. This is why I think Gay Pride is misnamed. Nobody should be proud -- or ashamed -- of their sexual orientation. It´s not a hierarchy thing; there´s no better or worse. Just like it´s not better or worse to be white or brown or black. Pride isn´t the right word. I´m not sure the right word exists in the English language. There´s a subtle feeling of self-affirmation all people have access to when they do the hard personal work of making friends with themselves, a feeling of basic OKness that is not dependent on anybody else giving a thumbs up. It´s this subtle feeling of self-affirmation I hope all of us feel this June, whether we march in a Pride march or not. If you feel it, whew -- well that´s something to be proud of.

The Correspondent (Virginia Evans). A epistolatory novel featuring the correspondence of a Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous septuagenarian whose life gently expands over time -- even as her vision fails. I cried towards the end (a good thing). Heartily recommended.

like the falling rain I plink, pour, puddle, and plop Leia´s sweet revenge.

You are perfect just as you are, and you could use a little improvement. --attributed to Shunryru Suzuki-roshi I suspect this saying could apply to a great many of the "ten-thousand things." A related paradox: when we accept ourselves and others as we are, resistance softens and change for the better comes easily.

Luke is now Leia I wish that Maddie could see my transformation.

Which way? Which way now? Why not traipse through the garden, so lovely this year?

Good point. Although in some ways the program behaves in a quite inhuman, or at least unBumlike, fashion. When confronted about it´s duplicity, Chat GPT immediately confesses, says "there are no excuses," and promises to do better. There´s no dodging. I often ask Gemini (Google´s free version of AI) for culinary advice and recipes. It always seems happy to help out and disconcertingly enthusiastic about my kitchen plans. My partner, on the other hand, is less keen on my cooking.

I usually prefer to read novels that take place in contemporary times, but a story featuring a reincarnated version of Taomeow with "under-erased memories" set in the Paleolithic era? I wouldn´t begin to guess even what genre such a work might belong in. The literary possibilities boggle.

Diabolus Ex Machina - by Amanda Guinzburg The above is a transcript of a GPT conversation. A writer asks GPT to read and offer advice about some essays, and GPT pretends to have read the pieces when it didn´t. Very strange.

On my next birthday I´ll be sixty. I hope people don´t think of me as bitter, but won´t mind if I´m pigeonholed as systematic. That would be quite nice, actually.

To my mind, Daniel´s chief sin was misunderstanding Buddhism. He massaged his misunderstanding into the form of a metaphorical suicide vest, strapped it onto his chest, and strode proudly into the Mod Lounge. They say to pick the hill you are willing to die on; for Daniel that hill was non-dualism. RIP

Rather than asking what is true, I prefer to ask what is useful. Will my life be better if I believe myself to have free will or not? The answer to this question might change depending on our stage of life and circumstances. Sometimes it´s useful to believe in our own agency, striving to do and create; at other times the best option is to surrender to our ultimate powerlessness.

You´re surprised I know that Shadow_Self can overheat? I have many faults and deficiencies. I eat too many donuts and have never been able to do a pullup,; I won´t be any help if our car breaks down on the highway. But one thing I can do is read.

So you don´t think Shadow_Self is a wonderful Bum?