New device

A new iPad came today.  My old one is a "Mini" but the current Mini is rather expensive, especially compared to the old one.  It seems that for a while, additional bells and whistles, features and "conveniences" are just a bother, a cost and a poor fit for me.  As usual, Apple, like other companies, tried to make the change to a new device quick and easy.  But, as my businessman brother-in-law told me years ago, I don't fit the demographic.  I am used to fiinding that sizes, costumes, preferences, interests of mine are not much like that of others my sex, my age, my history.  So, when Apple says you can easily do such-and-such, I find I don't want to.  

I enjoy snapping off my computer and starting later with a clean slate.  I don't actually use a slate but it can be fun and eye-opening to consider each of my old apps, asking if I actually use it. I appreciate the large keyboard of the standard-sized model. I don't use my digital camera since I get fine pictures with an iPad and I can quickly share them by Gmail. I tried taking a picture of Lynn with the new device, realized I could switch to making a video while forgetting that a video of even 26 seconds makes a big package, big enough that it wouldn't email.  

Some friends have been discussing limitations set by Apple.  I enjoy using quite a few Google services and I mix my use of Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft in ways that seem ok to me.  I am used to Amazon and its ebooks sending me too many emails about books I am not interested in and various red dots and "notifications" [a.k.a. interruptions of low value] from all the companies I work with telling me about features and services and bargains I don't want.

One of my greatgranddaughters is interested in art and drawing.  That interest got me to buy an Apple pencil to try handwriting and sketching on the new device.  If I write in cursive, the iPad quickly converts the writing to a print font.  I don't know how to use the pencil for drawing but eventually I will get to that.

Finding Nicolas and Arlette

I have two lists of books on my older website:

https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/reading-list-1983

https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/recent-reading-2011

The lists were given to students interested in a variety of books that I had found worthwhile. More recent books that have mattered are listed here and there on other pages of the web site and on pages of the blog:

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/

Most of the books cited are still in my mind and memory.  I read in the "Writer's Almanac" the other day that someone had written a book called "The Coast of Bohemia."  I once read a book with a similar title but by a different person but I couldn't remember just what the title was nor the author's name.  It took a little while and some repeated Google searches but eventually I found "The Seacoast of Bohemia" by Nicolas Freeling.  He is an author that I knew I had read sometime back. I liked the atmosphere of his books and I knew that he had once written about a fictional detective who died one way or another but whose wife continued on with some of his cases.  I knew that this was way back in my life and that is the sort of half-clear memory that I like to track down.  

Turns out that Inspector Van der Valk's widow is told about in "Arlette".  I never read "Arlette" but I might.  I knew that I had seen Freeling's name in the credits for a show on PBS.  For old times sake, we watched the first episode of Van der Valk last night.  We had seen it before but long enough in the past that scenes and faces and plot turns were familiar but only after seeing them.  

It is fun to use Google and Duckduckgo (and Vivaldi and Brave and Opera, all browsers like Edge and Firefox) to find stuff.  I remembered that Freeling's book said Bohemia had no seacoast.  I learned that Shakespeare refers somewhere to Bohemia's coast.  Here's what Google says about this very unimportant mystery: 

It is true that, at the present day, Bohemia, situated as is in the heart of Europe, does not touch the sea anywhere, and owns no seaports of her own; in her days of glory, however, under the King Přemysl Otokar II., she really had a sea coast and harbors on the Adriatic.Jan 6, 2021

The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/Sea Coast of Bohemia

Let's hear it for nerds!

What is our story?

Māori are the tangata whenua, the indigenous people, of New Zealand. They came here more than 1000 years ago from their mythical Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki. Today, one in seven New Zealanders identify as Māori.

Discover Māori culture in New Zealand

https://www.newzealand.com › maori-culture

People also ask

How long ago did the Māori people arrive in New Zealand?

Māori originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of waka (canoe) voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350.

Māori people - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Māori_people

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This link goes to "Maori Songs", an album of Maori songs featuring Kiri Te Kana, a Maori woman who is a primier opera singer.  

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maori+songs+kiri

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While listening to the album, I could imagine being an old man among the Maori indigenous people of New Zealand and using tales, imagination and knowledge to understand where we were and how we got there.  It is a long, complex story from "The 10,000 Year Explosion" by Cochran and Harpending to today and it would be very hard to figure the whole business out by yourself.  You could try and you could fill in the blanks with your best guess but there would be mistakes, contradictions and difficulties.

The country has a well-known woman prime minister:

New Zealand/Prime minister

Jacinda Ardern

Since 2017

And an impressive rugby team, "All Blacks",  that practices the "haka", a ceremony based on Maori battle prep:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=all+blacks+haka

It is worth watching.  Don't be scared.

Privacy

I think the concept of privacy is akin to the concept of freedom. Both words get tossed around quite a bit.  Both command attention and in many cases, allegiance and respect.  "Let's respect each other's privacy."  "Let's protect our freedom."  

What privacy do I have?  What privacy do I want?  When I think of my whereabouts, I think of Google Location services.  It keeps track of where I go and about once a week, I get a report of where I have been.  Recently, I used Google Location to figure out what restaurant we ate dinner in the other night.  You could remember a nice dinner without no stinkin' location service but you are young and fresh.  I am old and stale and I like having assistance from computers and connections between computers.  

Somewhat like Location services, there is Google search.  When people say "I Googled him", they usually mean they used Google search to see what they could find about someone.  Generally, if the person is named "Jane Doe", many people will be involved in search results while results pertaining directly to your friend Melody Ann Hassenpfeffer may be easier to find if you use her less-common name. 

I looked up my daughter in Google.  When I looked up her name, I found many pictures of people but none of her.  I thought it might be better if I looked up "my daughter".  That search resulted in well over 15 Billion results.  I am too old and too blasé to check all of the results but the first page of them was not promising.  If I want to know more about her, it would be better to ask her or her husband.  It might be invading her privacy to park in front of her house and video the comings and goings.

Sometimes I get the impression that Google doesn't pay enough attention to me.  I'm a good person.  How come you get followed and recorded and discussed while I get zilch?

Recent trip

We wanted a trip. We hadn't had one in a while.  Lynn is a good trip planner and she suggested the Mineral Point area.  That is part of Wisconsin's "Driftless" area, which is much more beautiful than the name sounds.  Quite a large section of the state was gouged and moved and washed by glaciers but not the southwestern part of the state.

It is near the Adamah ceramics and pottery classes that Lynn has attended many times.  I was impressed at how severely Covid, time and labor troubles seem to have limited the businesses open there.  We had dinner sandwiches in Tony's Tap, supplemented by convenience store peanuts and soft ice cream.  

The next day, we drove to Taliesin, architect Frank Lloyd Wright's estate.  We planned coffee and snacks but they weren't serving.  At Black Earth, Lynn visited the Shoe Box.  I found I hadn't brought a belt and looked at their belts but they were more expensive than I wanted.  I tried the nearby Bargain Box.  While looking at their belts, I knocked some nearby gloves off their hook.  Bending to pick them up, I gouged my forehead on a hook I didn't see.  Not much blood but irritating.  I am still decorated.

Our trip planner had made reservations for us at a Madison Quality Inn (aka Comfort Suites).  We stayed two nights, dined at Biaggi's Westside and at Bonefish Grill and spent a nice afternoon at the Madison arboretum.  I spent time in Barnes and Noble and found that Brian Christian, a good writer about computing and people, called "The Alignment Problem".  It refers to building human values into algorithms and computer programs.  

Lynn needs a certain amount of time in Nature and wanted to visit Horicon Marsh.  We did, we walked a bit and we visited the state nature center there.  We made our way home and are ready for the next event or adventure or snooze.

Tolerating myself

I think it is ok to die at any time. That matters since various forces and fates can hold me hostage to being alive.  Some, I don't mind.  I want to stay alive so I get out of the way of an approaching truck.  But I try to train myself that if I make a mistake and fail to get out of the way, I don't want to hold mistakes against myself too strongly or for too long.  A doctor advised me not to let a good body go to waste so I try to be sensible.

Several times most days I recall Buddha's admonition to be careful of what I want and how ardently I hold my wants.  Staying alive is a good idea.  It is also something that people I love, like Dr. Lynn Kirby, want me to do.  So, getting out of the way of a truck successfully keeps people important to me happier than getting splattered.  Still, I hold a somewhat casual position about continuing to live.  I think longevity is a complex mixture of curating my health and the luck of the draw.  I guess that means I can take about 65% of the credit for continuing to live.

Reading David Eagleman's Incognito and Chade-Meng Tan's two books and Larry Rosenberg's Breath by Breath while observing how the longer-lived sex, women, do things, I think feeling all my emotions but not feeling them too strongly helps me stay afloat.  David, Tan and Larry have joined Prof. Lisa Feldman Barrett in my mind and brought me to conclude that initial feelings and fears can be slid away or modified into friendly tolerable form. Even enjoyable forms quite often.  As with many things, feeling good gets easier with practice.

Let's check the facts

https://www.comicskingdom.com/dustin

Dustin, a cartoon character, has a son who goes to elementary school.  In today's cartoon, we learn that his school has a fact checker.  In today's world, we have faster communication and messages from a broader range of people.  Some people have a deep commitment to only sending messages they strongly believe to be true.  Others have a deep commitment to messages that excite and surprise, with little regard for evidence of truth or falsity.  Because of increasing communication and given the possibility that my statements, messages, pictures and comments are questioned or opposed, somebody might check my facts in an attempt to settle them as true or false.  

https://www.google.com/search?q=Leading+fact+checkers

When I think of fact-checking organizations, I think of Snopes.com.  That is a site I have used at times to see what they say about a certain statement.  If I hear or read that Abraham Lincoln was secretly a llama farmer, I probably won't bother putting the underlined words in Google.  It's possible that I could use Duckduckgo.com to see what it can tell me about a subject or question.  

Some enterprising teacher may well have asked a likely student or two to be the class scuttlebutt fact-checker.  I would not be surprised if some schools are developing training in fact-checking.  I am sure that many academics feel they have already spent their careers in fact-checking.  Many modern communicators in a broad range of subjects are experts at getting an idea across without actually making any firm statement that can be checked for truth.  

In addition to deliberate use of weasel words such as 

Maybe...

It might be the case that...

Some people wonder if…

statements can be quite difficult to evaluate.  Many ideas are quite broad such as "____________ is the greatest man who ever lived" or, to make use of the future tense, "in 200 years, all of humanity will recognize the greatness of _____________".  

Sometimes, it is said that much of education amounts to training in "critical thinking."  [I just weasel-worded!] I happen to believe that a person can be overly critical of every idea and every statement and every thought.  Perhaps, some of today's headaches come from too much doubt and critical thinking.

Getting a fresh start

On the last day of December 2009, I posted in this blog about mishaps that helped.  Most of the time, when something goes awry, it is not fun or profitable.  But once in a while, it pays.  Writers and thinkers are watching the Covid business to see if there emerge wrinkles that are unexpected helps, revelations, inspirations and such.  

Some road knights, people who travel like to be able to work with a laptop but shut down quickly when their flight is called or something else abrupt happens.  Christians have often been advised to be "reborn" in new, clean versions to live better, more helpfully with more joy and gratitude.  There have been pieces of writing on the internet from time to time making fun of computer reboots and asking if auto makers should advise re-starting the engine, like re-starting a computer.  

I don't say I admire running away from problems.  Families and relationships and friendships often blossom only with longterm care and feeding.  In fact, I am advocating more phone calls and visits out of the blue to contact others I haven't heard from in a long time.  But in the case of possessions, it does seem to me that the born-again model can be useful. What if I lose all my beloved possessions?  Well, so what?  I once didn't have them and without them around, I would be free to start over.  

Whether it is notes from a good talk or photographs of that loveable puppy, it often pays to ask my wife's question: have you used it in the last two years?  It often happens that my current stance on the subject of that good talk has changed and I want to make a different presentation, based on new insights and revised opinions.  When I think about it, I haven't looked at the photo for years and I forgot I had it.  

A clean break, a fresh start can be strongly uplifting and freeing.

Names for poochie and boys

One thing leads to another but you probably already know that.  There are many people who walk their dogs in our neighborhood.  One of the dogs is the most insistent dog I have ever seen about seeking attention and handling from every other person on the street. This morning, that dog was doing its stuff and I asked the owner what its name is.  "Bentley", said the very patient dog walker who gently insists the dog keep walking every time it tries to show its very deep affection for the delicious stranger it simply cannot live without.  I asked and the dog is 4 months old.  

It happens that one of the dogs that lives across the street from us is also "Bentley".  Wow!  Are there fashions in dog names like there are in names for newborn children?  I had seen listing like this before:

Here are the current 100 most popular names for baby boys, according to the Social Security Administration.

• Liam.

• Noah.

• Oliver.

• Elijah.

• William.

• James.

• Benjamin.

• Lucas.

More items...

•

May 11, 2021

140 Most Popular Baby Boy Names of 2021 — Trendy - Good .

I looked up popular names for dogs. Most Popular Dog Names of 2020

• Bella.

• Luna.

• Charlie.

• Lucy.

• Cooper.

• Max.

• Bailey.

• Daisy.

More items...

•

Oct 14, 2020

These Are the Most Popular Dog Names of 2020 - Travel + ...

I asked my neighbor why the name Bentley.  She said she wanted to be able to say that her husband bought her a Bentley, leaving the impression that she had a new British automobile.  I found this:

View all

The Bentley is used mostly on official engagements, and is always escorted by a selection of marked and unmarked Royal Protection Squad vehicles and local police vehicles and motorcycle outriders. ... The Queen also uses the Bentleys to travel to and from Crathie Kirk when at Balmoral and Sandringham House.

I also looked up the price and found $160,000 to $313,000.

Chromebooks for 'sploring

I like to keep a computer handy while I watch TV.  I didn't want to spend much for one.  I bought an Acer Chromebook about 3 years ago.  Chromebooks are related to Google.  You may remember the days in the early 1990's when email and personal computers just started to show the power and convenience of the internet.  My favorite programs for exploring the internet these days are the Firefox browser and the Google search page.  Before they were available, I used Lycos and the Netscape browser.  

I keep a Chromebook in the living room where I watch TV.  I can quickly look up a screenwriter or an actor and also find answers to other questions that come to mind.  I didn't realize that the Chromebook I bought had a date after which it would receive no further updates.  A few days ago, I got a message that my Chromebook was getting its last update and there would not be any further ones.  I respect the notion that hardware, software and situations, as well as methods and goals, definitely change over time.  I wondered if I might be able to get some future updates, maybe for security, if I pleaded and pleaded.  I figure that is a waste of time and typing.

I ordered a new Chromebook but when it came and I tried using it, I immediately got a message that the machine had passed its expiration date and would get no further updates!  I returned it. I am keeping my first out-of-date Chromebook since I am interested in both what it can do for me and for how long and also in modifications that I might make to it.  I just learned today about the Gallium operating system specifically made to run on expired Chromebooks.  I didn't realize until just now that gallium is an element, a fundamental chemical in our world and is a metal that will melt just from body heat.

Can't say

I did a wide variety of tasks, none of them terribly exciting but all needed to be done.  I can't write what they are since they are top secret, or I have forgotten them.  Maybe tomorrow I will have something more interesting to post.

Wish I wasn't a human

Think of all the trouble it is to be a human.  Just to reach adulthood takes forever.  Human childhood stretches on for longer than most animals' whole lifetimes.  Plus, there is so much to learn!  A full complex language is just the beginning, along with walking on just two feet!  Two feet and yet humans grow to be big and wide!  Sure, that bipedal business frees their hands but for what?  Cooking, gardening, what they call "sports", typing.  Ok, they do have surgery and sometimes, that is a big help.  They have invented all sorts of activities for those hands.

But think how much better it is to be a squirrel!  They are mature at 14 weeks and can live to be 15 years old (but they average only 6 years).  No driving, no household bills, no taxes, no fake news, no elections, no money or bills or bank accounts.  Just nuts and foraging, tree acrobatics all day.  Squirrels do need to be on alert for predators but no organized warfare or wars stretching on for years.  No explosions or bombs.  No cars, gasoline, speeding tickets.

Animals seem to be able to accept existence more easily than humans.  They do without books or tv or movies.  In my next life, I might apply for squirrelhood.

My rights and yours

I have participated in discussion groups run by parliamentary procedure or a reasonable facsimile of that procedure.  In my experience, there is a chairman or chairwoman.  There may be an agenda, often sent out beforehand.  It is a list of items or issues that the group needs to discuss and often, take action upon.  I think that formally, a motion needs to be made and seconded to provide some foundation for discussion and approval or rejection.  Often, the chair permits discussion by various speakers in something like a search for a clear statement of a proposed stand or procedure.  

For more than 30 years, I was a member of a semi-formal academic group that used such a procedure and I contributed my two cents, maybe even ten cents or more, to the discussion.  Once, a senior member said to me, "Kirby, I'd like to sit on you."  I took that to mean he considered me to be an over-contributor and/or frequently disagreed with my comments.  There were times when the group voted in the opposite way from my vote.  In a small group like that, it is quite clear who voted for and who, against.  At times like those, I had difficulty seeing how the majority could vote the "wrong" way.  

I sometimes feel as though things would be better if I had a vote but others didn't.  I can usually see so clearly what the better way would be and yet many others can't.  Believe it or not, those voting the wrong way often feel they can explain to me why I am in error!

The important stuff vs. the subjects

https://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2021/09/12

Lynn Johnston is a Canadian cartoonist who draws "For Better or For Worse", a cartoon about family life.  Today's strip depicts a long phone conversation between school girls who are friends.  The girl's mom says that her daughter has spent too long on the phone and has other things that she needs to do.  The girl protests that "Mom, it is about SCHOOL!"  We have read most of the conversation and it has been about what we should wear, some of the tastier male students, and other fundamental matters.  

I am writing to emphasize that the talk has been about school, only not the curriculum, the liberal arts, or the sciences.  Parents, grandparents and relatives can enrich their lives and their memories, as well as their respect for the entire trajectory of human life, if they keep in mind that we humans have biological and maturational forces working in us at all times.  Just because Mr. Schultz is requiring us to take a test on the founding of the Jamestown colony doesn't mean that important biological and psychological forces have taken a break.  Some of that early American history has its place, but it is not wise to expect it to replace clothes, boys and relationships between friends.  

It may help to cast your mind back to your own high school years and estimate how much plane geometry you used this past week, how much you remember of Shakespeare's sonnets and what is the capital of Ohio.  If you live in Ohio, substitute the capital of Tennessee. It can help to remember that school is never just about the curriculum, the subjects or even the grades.  By the way, what grade did you get in 9th grade English, anyhow?  (I don't know what grade I got, either.)  When your greatgranddaughter gets hired by the US Justice department, you probably won't be thinking about her grades, either.

The Kingdom of Now

I have mentioned the value of meditation, even short periods of say five minutes until a timer rings.  You can have Google search page set a timer that runs five minutes and sounds off when the time is up.  Having a sound means you don't have to check over and over to see how much time is left.

There are two types of mental activities often discussed in connection with meditation: one-point and watching thoughts.  Generally it is easier to train for one-point: concentrate on one thing, one visual anchor or one focus of attention.  Minds are built to wander but when you realize yours has wandered off the target, just bring it back.  

The other common practice is to sit and watch thoughts, themes, ideas drift by.  They can be seductive and smoothly draw you in, so gently that you don't know you are being drawn.  But eventually, you may realize you are thinking about the little red-headed girl or painting the living room.  When you do, bring your naughty attention back to the anchor and try again.

Eckhart Tolle has several books and workshops that take a third direction: using the Now in a strong and focused way.  Do whatever you want to do but focus just on what you are doing with your hands and your eyes and not on the future or the past - just what is currently in front of you.  This is the approach described in "Breath by Breath" by Larry Rosenberg.  A very old Korean monk advised Rosenberg and his group to just focus on washing the dishes, preparing the next meal, and cleaning up and keeping all thoughts just on what is right in front of them.   

Did you see that?

I am getting pretty old and people my age often have body troubles.  Hips, knees, balance and locomotion problems.  Hearing problems, vision problems. The ophthalmologists have a machine that gives vision field tests.  One of the ways vision problems come up is a shrinking of the vision field.  A person can do better in the world if they can see a broad area and not just a tiny spot.  The vision field test machine also detects if spots here and there in my vision see nothing.

To take the test, I have to keep looking at a central spot and press a clicker each time a flash goes off somewhere in my visual field.  The flashes jump all over, down there, over there, up here.  The doctor said I need to come over and take a visual field test.  But, when I got there, they said the machine was not working.  They would get it repaired (eventually) and call me when to try again.  I got a call and came over.  The doctor apologized but said the machine had gone down again in the last few hours.  I should wait until I get a phone call that they have it repaired.  The machine costs $60,000 to $70,000 so I can see it is expensive.  

I did get a call again and I tried to make an appointment but the secretary isn't clear just what sort of appointment I need - just the test by machine or also a conference with the doctor.  I intend to keep working on getting the test and having it professionally evaluated.

Tan, David, Lisa and Larry

I keep reading about the stress produced by the Covid virus.  I am sorry for difficulties but I am afraid that too many people fail to use tools they have at hand to lower their stress level and deal with what is left.  Let me mention tools and authors who can be very helpful.  

1. Chase-Meng Tan  - Author of Search Inside Yourself and Joy on Demand.

2. David Eagleman - Author of Incognito

3. Lisa Barrett Feldman - Author of 7 and a ½ Lessons About the Brain and How Emotions are Made

4. Larry Rosenberg - Author of Breath by Breath

#1 will help you develop the habit of meditation.  Tan says you need a mind and one conscious breath.

#2 will help you appreciate how much of you isn't part of your conscious, aware mind.

#3 will help show what else goes on in your body and brain.

#4 shows how to use that ever-present breathing that you do to be more in touch with all of you, including parts that get to choose how to feel about your situation and the deal life gives you.

You can get all six books for $26 if you buy used versions from Amazon.

You are a miracle in yourself, even if you don't want to hear that.  You can select how you want to feel and feel that, even if you don't believe that.  I am not saying that everything will be rosy at all times.  Since you have never had everything be rosy all the time, you haven't experienced that situation.  It's true that you need a little counter-rosy, a little anti-rosy once in a while but when you do, you can arrange to find and experience it a bit and then get back to rosy.

Information poisoning

Everything in moderation

The essential thought is found in the work of the Greek poet Hesiod (c. 700 bc), 'observe due measure; moderation is best in all things', and of the Roman comic dramatist Plautus (c. 250–184 bc), 'moderation in all things is the best policy.

Moderation in all things - Oxford Reference

Sometimes call the Goldilocks principle: not too hot and not too cold, not too big and not too small - just right.

I wonder if some people, maybe me, too, are subjecting themselves to too much information.  When you couple information from all subjects and all locations, as in today's Internet, with the media's need to sell, stand out with alarming information and recitations of murders, destruction, discord and such, it is possible to overdo one's circuits with doubt and despair.  Watch more Hallmark movies, cuddle more babies and give posies to your loved ones.  Use moderation in that too, or you will just be a pest but seek cheer and comfort appropriately. Ok?

Four important women

With Afghanistan in the news and steady work on rights and such, there is plenty of chance to think about women.  My daughter mentioned the subject, I think, in connection with the Taliban and its attitude toward women.  As far as I know, every human of either sex came into the world from a woman's body.  I know, I know: the process of becoming a human being often starts with a gleam in a man's eye. Since we males are simple creatures, I realize that some of the time, that gleam begins with a woman's purchase of a new dress, or taking a walk past a certain desk.  

I got into teaching more or less by accident.  The cost was low enough for me to attend college.  Once I heard what the cost was, I didn't give my occupational plans much of a 2nd thought.  At the time, graduates of my teacher's college were assured of a paying job so things seemed wrapped up.  During my freshman year, I had to visit a classroom while the teacher and students were engaged in actual, on-going education.  The college arranged the visit and I visited a 3rd grade class.  The students were polite and engaged but the teacher made it clear to me that male teachers were not appropriate at that level.  I figured high school or middle school was for me until I was handed a list of all the courses I would be required to take.  I was surprised and said that I thought I would get some choices that I could make.  The leader of the session said,"Oh, you want choices?  Switch to elementary teaching."  I did switch.  I wound up teaching the 5th grade for 4 years. In four years time, I learned that my state required me to get a master's degree.  On the way to that credential, I got a PhD.

As I think about my life, I realize that my mother, my sister, my wife and my daughter have punctuated my life and embellished it.  They have loved me and decorated my existence.  I recommend that the Taliban think carefully about who is essential and who is peripheral, even if their conclusion is scary.

Automatic gut reactions

I am interested in automatic reactions that my body can perform without my thinking about them or intending them.  My friend told me long ago to think of a rustling in the leaves near me, having an alarm reaction and then finding that my own foot had stepped on a branch that did the rustling.  

The Writer's Almanac discussed a little of the writings of Richard Wright, author of Native Son.  Here he has traveled from the South he has always known to the city of Chicago;

Wright found a city where Blacks and whites sat on streetcars next to each other, bought newspapers at the same newsstands, ate at the same restaurants. He'd always known the rules in the segregated south, but in Chicago he suddenly had no idea how he was supposed to act. At his first job as a dishwasher he was shocked when a white waitress asked him to help tie her apron. He did so, and later wrote, "I continued my work, filled with all the possible meanings that tiny, simple, human event could have meant to any Negro in the South where I had spent my hungry days."

I have heard that mammals like you and me have an immediate and gut reaction to infants and little kids.  We have automatic delight, comfort and protective reactions, even if we are male.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=babies+get+their+first+pair+of+glasses

You can feel and experience that reaction if you look at babies getting their first glasses.  Not everyone needs glasses but they can be wonderful if you do need them.