“the experience of hearing Judy Garland sing ‘Over the Rainbow.’ When the song and the credits end, I am left with the feeling that ought to be a paradise, and I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’s famous quote: ‘If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’ We do not need to only participate in dark or troubling stories, but we do need to give priority to stories that haunt us, unsettle us, and expand us, whether through beauty and delight or tragedy. We also need to make time and space to interpret the stories through dialogue with others. Living in an atomistic culture, our default response to receiving a story is not to interpret it in community. We may have a personal opinion about it. We may tweet a 280 character review. We may debate parts of the story. But most of us are not inclined to take the time to slowly work through the meanings of the story and dialogue with one another. In other words, the prolonged, thoughtful, charitable dialogue about stories I’m recommending will not happen naturally. We need to intentionally pursue it.”
Alan Noble Disruptive Witness
You have been spammed by an alien, Isabel. This message may be the equivalent of the Rosetta Stone. Save, bookmark, and meditate upon it. Whether it is a greeting, word of compassion, or expletive, I think we should memorize it so we can offer it in appropriate tones on occasions that seem appropriate.
Laurna – Dagnab it! I didn’t consider the possibility of the mother ship. “Klaatu barada nikto”, perhaps?
If only it were that “simple”. That movie was made back in the da when 1) people’s attention spans were longer and 2) so were their memories (under duress) ….kla…what?
Barbara – Oh yes. And movies were a *lot* slower. And watching the clips, I couldn’t see that anyone was in charge of the troops. They were all standing in different postures, and decided on their own when to draw or point or shoot their various weapons. Yikes.
Isabel
This smacks a bit of Russian, and a bit of Greek.
I think it means, “Here, tie a knot in the end of this rope and hang on.” Best I can do.
Either that or it’s an obscure prediction such as: “In spite of last night’s chaotic ending, the Dodgers still win the World Series.”
Tom
Tom – That *was* some ending, wasn’t it? We gave up before the 9th inning and so had to settle for the replay without any uncertainty of the outcome to lend some spice. It was still fabulous. As for the translation, that’s as good as anything and better than many.
Actually, if you convert all the letters into number code, multiply them together like an ISBN, convert those to base 13, apply the Planck constant, and divide by the square root of the speed of light, and then convert those digits back into alphabetic letters, you’ll have a clear and concise answer. I’d give you the result, but I haven’t been able to do it yet.
Jim T
I think where it gets tricky is in the square root of the speed of light part.
Tom
Jim & Tom – Bah! Just do a Fournier transform first. (I have no idea what that is but it’s one of the few math-jargon bits I know how to spell.)