Monday (I have Friday on my mind)

Temperature: a sunny 10/50 degrees.

Eating: Maybe later.

Drinking: tea.

Listening: to the troll-in-chief on his Life of a Showboat Tour brings to mind all the traits of the dark triad.

Watching: Slow Horses.

Reading: on AI from several angles and feeling more and more uneasy the deeper I delve. Automation bias, anybody? Seriously, despite hominid appearances, there's no one home. There's no one on the other end, and when a system gets so complex you can't decipher or understand its inner logic, you gotta ask yourself should I trust this thing to make an assessment or decision for me. And the piracy involved...mind-boggling.

Writing: something that would lift your from your funk and sling you straight into the depths of despair. So let's not go there right now, it's only Monday after all.

Thinking: I get to meet an old and dear dear friend over the weekend so I've already got my eye on Friday. I know, still only Monday. Gaah!

Feeling: an itch in my nasal cavity. Don't. You. Dare.

Hi honey, I'm home!

A little worse for wear, but home. Let me catch my breath and catch up on things for a bit? 

(If it can't wait another second, let me know in comments. Will read them, won't publish them, will answer you by means of...yeah, didn't think that through, did I. Like I said, let me catch my breath, sweetie darlings.)

Feet, don’t fail me now

Happy equinox, sweetie darlings, night and day have called a truce! It won't last long, but balance is a beautiful thing, especially in nature. So do step out and enjoy it, if you can.

I need to step out of the den for a moment or several, so wish me safe travels. Where am I going? A couple of places, actually. Don't worry, it's all good.

See you in October? It's a date and I will hold you to it.

Now go love someone and shine on. 💋

History repeating

When writing, translating, communicating, trying to grasp the essence or scope of something, it's often useful and revealing to look at antonyms instead of synonyms; in other words: what that word, idea, phenomenon, or policy isn't. So. 

Antonyms for diversity: homogeneity, sameness, similarity, uniformity.
Antonyms for equity: bias, favoritism, prejudice, unfairness.
Antonyms for inclusion: deletion, discrimination, elimination, exclusion.

Since workplaces, schools, countries, are made up of people, and people are, as we all know, not the same but different, it is an odd, oppressive and questionable idea to try to squeeze a workplace, school, let alone an entire country, into one mold dictated from above while dismissing and disregarding whole segments of a society.

This kind of insular thinking leads to shrinking; the shrinking of everything that drives successful economies and societies: arts and science, innovation, investments and infrastructure, governmental and institutional stability and predictability, the quality and availability of education and the skills of your workforce, the trust of your citizens in their personal and your common future and success.

The most prosperous civilizations in history weren't based on insular thinking, on words, ideas and policies such as exclusion, prejudice or homogeneity; they owed their success to welcoming different and diverse people and ideas, daring to be inspired and influenced by them. Corruption, concentration of power and wealth, pitting citizens against one another, and sectarian violence, on the other hand, are surefire ways to destroy a flourishing country and culture.

It has happened all over the world across the ages. Who's to say it won't happen again? How far can a government go in the name of defending a nation and its values before it distorts and eventually abandons those values, destroying that nation in the process?

Pardon my French

...but a simple Well done, you felt lacking in both umph and candor, so here we are, swearing our congrats online. (I would have sent you that card but wasn't quite sure where to, so here we are, making our excuses online. Yes, I do believe that's the royal we. Why wouldn't it be? *cheeky grin*)

Safe travels and shine on. ✨