Blog # 166...June, 2025
Wow, what a creepy experience it was to assign AI to write a mid month blog and see what it would produce. Many of you agreed with me that it was both amazing and scary. I know AI can be immensely useful in some settings but my curiosity has been satisfied and I'll continue to be old school and do my own writing.
The New Yorker won three Pulitzers this year, more wins than any magazine has ever had in one year! I get it delivered every week (yikes) and although it's very yankocentric, I like the point of view and love the writing. Jia Tolentino wrote this recently, "I feel a troubling kind of opacity in my brain lately - as if reality were becoming illegible, as if language were a vessel with holes in the bottom and meaning was leaking out all over the floor." She goes on to mention the environment, COVID, wars both physical and trade, addictions to phones and other materials, and news real and fake.
Many of us may feel that way, strugggling with our perception of reality, but not with Jia's elegant way with words. The feelings have given rise to a field day for writers of self help books. Although I often find them a stretching out of a magazine article, I'm conscious that some people find them useful and supportive in the search for a good night's sleep or just articulating a concern or problem.
Two in particular have caught my eye recently as they hover week after week on the best seller list. They seem at first to be in opposition to each other: The Let Them Theory advises stepping back and allowing others to make mistakes, respecting a person's choices as their right. The other Believing advocates leaning in and belonging - explaining that conventional religion has been replaced by individual and collective ways to believe, behave and belong. I do like things that provoke thinking... full disclosure here, I haven't read either of these books. t was attracted to the topics and summaries though, maybe they'll strike you too.
I had a nightmare the other night about Elon Musk drilling into the Great Lakes to drain water to green up the golf courses of you know who (or is it whom?) News this am reveals that he's bored with ransacking the US civil service and is resigning as head basher at DOGE. I hope my dream wasn't prescient.
I'm signing off with a question...why has it become so difficult to buy a quart of plain 2% milk? I was unsuccessful in two local stores yesterday in finding milk that wasn't made from nuts, had the lactose removed (expensive) or was in huge unwieldy bags. I'm delighted that people with allergies can find products that suit them but what about the rest of us? I'm thinking of getting my own cow.
A huge thank you to my friend Margaret Adamson who has offered to catch typos I make as my eyes age along with the reast of me.
That's all for now, see you again when we'll be getting ready to celebrate Canada Day - with extra vigour this year.