Category: paradox lost

what you will want

Driving America

Posted on Posted in paradox lost

For the past year I have driven much more than flown. This has kept me away from quick, but frustrating encounters. It has, at the same time, provided another set of encounters. If you stop your car, within a few passers by, someone will stop. Often, they turn around to pull in, not close, but proximate to us.

I have thought of this several times, but haven’t settled on a good reason. This has left me unsettled, since there are as many, if not more, bad reasons for their interest in my stopping along the road. Some items for you to consider. One, they never open with an offer to help. Not even an inquiry along the lines of our needing help. Two, they only stop if they see my wife, not me. Three, they are men in their thirties. The ABCs of this do not settle my mind about travel through the heart of america.

These reflections remind me though of a journey made by me and my mother many years ago. Father had gone ahead of us. Leaving us in Idaho to finish packing, while he flew to Germany. Mother and I were to drive from Idaho to New Jersey before joining him. A great adventure for me. Probably less exciting for my mom. We traveled in a big buick convertible. I was, as always, navigator. Maps and compass, pencils and paper. Father left us with two things on his last day in Idaho. He gave me a giant pair of binoculars. He gave mother a small revolver.

Traveling america decades after that trip, decades after their deaths, it seems that to travel america it may be wise to carry them both, even now. Maybe someday only the oversized binoculars will be needed.

What Data Does

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, paradox lost

Data is a result, often taken as a feature to be interpreted. To be considered a test of hypothesis, a confirmation or challenge to theory. But does data mean science? Does the set of numbers mangled by freshmen in econ classes across this world, does that process mean they are engaged in science? No. The science they are doing is at most “statistics” but since they do that so badly, applying it to anything at hand, means that they don’t do it well enough to be credible science. Our universities mill out useless scientists, schooled until they have fooled themselves into behaving as though there was knowledge. Fooled us into believing them, following them into bubble land. Pop, pop, pop, our tiny toys, our tiny Ray Guns, popping all around us.Quick, someone count the bubbles, analyze the pops. Perhaps they are quadlinear. Perhaps ghastly transforms. Perhaps not.

Numbers don’t mean, they rarely render. Numbers never count, they rarely matter. Numbers is an easy game, but don’t remember. Numbers don’t reason. Numbers aren’t science.

This Cold Day

Posted on Posted in paradox lost

The inauguration, just a day away. Just any day, except that it will be used to celebrate. Used to console. Used to play out small things gathered to make grand spectacle. So what would you say? Perhaps note that this is a cold day with warmer days coming. That this is a time when our days grow brighter. That we grow warmer. That time to plant is soon, but that our harvest is still distant, but not lost. This is a cold day but not our last day, it is a first day. Our first day together.

And for those who know me well I say:

It’s not just another t-shirt rally, it is a memorial plate occasion.

and add:

A time when film is cheap and tape is endless there remains little to say but much to do. This is not that day, but tomorrow is.