Some presents come early

Two weeks from now we'll be in the midst of Christmas and other forms of madness. Most, maybe all, of the presents will have been opened. Folks will be at, or getting ready for, Christmas dinner. Some will be delighted; some, somewhat disappointed. I have vague recollections of a Christmas many years ago and some potential trauma about a Cabbage Patch doll that was nowhere to be had.

We gave ourselves a non book present that's scheduled to arrive tomorrow, a plaid, wool shirt that almost matches the one in the third picture down if you follow this link. We're indulging ourselves in preparation for the New Year, in which we intend to spend much more time outside than we have this year. We will make that time by spending much less time "doom-scrolling" on social media. In fact, as another early Christmas present, we're going to begin practicing that New Year's Resolution tomorrow. (It's too late for today.)

and presents under the tree

Photo by J. Harrington

This week we actually managed to get four or five fly boxes (for fly fishing) consolidated and organized. That's created a feeling of accomplishment, after only four or five years of talking about it, that we've never attained reading Tweets. Is it possible reality isn't meant to be experienced primarily through a computer screen? How can we write something like that to be published in a blog that's read, if at all, only on line in some screen or another? Well, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today, in their Sloan Management Review email, brought to our attention this:

The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand

We've suspected something akin to this for several years now although it wasn't clear our problems weren't primarily dotage-induced. It's great to have our suspicions confirmed by as august an institution as MIT. We're considering this to be another early Christmas present. Although we often threaten to become a modern-day Luddite, that's unlikely, but we can try to better tame these digital beasts that threaten to take over our lives and live them for us. Has anyone asked for any Isaac Asimov books for Christmas this year? An even more interesting question may be "what would artificial intelligence make of the current regime in Washington?" Isn't there supposed to be some kind of question that will cause a computer to enter a "do loop?"

“Your Luck Is About To Change”

By Susan Elizabeth Howe

     (A fortune cookie)

Ominous inscrutable Chinese news 

to get just before Christmas, 

considering my reasonable health, 

marriage spicy as moo-goo-gai-pan, 

career running like a not-too-old Chevrolet. 

Not bad, considering what can go wrong: 

the bony finger of Uncle Sam 

might point out my husband, 

my own national guard, 

and set him in Afghanistan; 

my boss could take a personal interest; 

the pain in my left knee could spread to my right. 

Still, as the old year tips into the new, 

I insist on the infant hope, gooing and kicking 

his legs in the air. I won't give in 

to the dark, the sub-zero weather, the fog, 

or even the neighbors' Nativity. 

Their four-year-old has arranged 

his whole legion of dinosaurs 

so they, too, worship the child, 

joining the cow and sheep. Or else, 

ultimate mortals, they've come to eat 

ox and camel, Mary and Joseph, 

then savor the newborn babe.

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