[Image: panel excerpted from “Slobbering Like Pavlov’s Dog: A Neurocomic,” by Matteo Farinella
and Hana Ros. To see the three-panel portion of the comic of which this is a part, click on the image.
For the whole thing, head on over to The Nib.]
From whiskey river:
A whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right, basically all the time, about basically everything: about our political and intellectual convictions, our religious and moral beliefs, our assessment of other people, our memories, our grasp of facts. As absurd as it sounds when we stop to think about it, our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient.
(Kathryn Schulz [source])
…and (italicized lines):
Miracle Fair
Commonplace miracle:
that so many commonplace miracles happen.An ordinary miracle:
in the dead of night
the barking of invisible dogs.One miracle out of many:
a small, airy cloud
yet it can block a large and heavy moon.Several miracles in one:
an alder tree reflected in the water,
and that it’s backwards left to right
and that it grows there, crown down
and never reaches the bottom,
even though the water is shallow.An everyday miracle:
winds weak to moderate
turning gusty in storms.First among equal miracles:
cows are cows.Second to none:
just this orchard
from just that seed.A miracle without a cape and top hat:
scattering white doves.A miracle, for what else could you call it:
today the sun rose at three-fourteen
and will set at eight-o-one.A miracle, less surprising than it should be:
even though the hand has fewer than six fingers,
it still has more than four.A miracle, just take a look around:
the world is everywhere.An additional miracle, as everything is additional:
the unthinkable
is thinkable.
(Wislawa Szymborska [source; I have used this one before, although not on a Friday])
..and:
The range of the human mind, the scale and depth of the metaphors the mind is capable of manufacturing as it grapples with the universe, stand in stunning contrast to the belief that there is only one reality, which is man’s, or worse, that only one culture among the many on earth possesses the truth.
To allow mystery, which is to say to yourself, “There could be more, there could be things we don’t understand,” is not to damn knowledge. It is to take a wider view. It is to permit yourself an extraordinary freedom: someone else does not have to be wrong in order that you may be right.
(Barry López [source])
