Can an AI lay eggs?................

All my life I have been told that I am ''different''.

Not knowing exactly what different means since

it seem to vary a lot from individual to individual,

I've concluded that it's one of those ambiguous

words.

Different can mean:

dissimilar, unlike, unalike, diverse, varied,

separate, divergent, distinct, uncommon, etc. etc. etc.

It can also mean: not like most, not like others,

strange, foreign, unusual, etc. etc.etc.

Already as a very small child I knew that

there was something different(in this case meaning

=wrong)not okay with me.

My first six years of school were not easy

as I was bullied constantly for being ''different'',

as in not ''normal''. There were beatings, my books 

and other school materials broken or destroyed.

My bike was always tampered with; the chain broken,

the tires flattened or the seat removed to

 somewhere unknown.

So, more often than not, I had to ''walk'' my

bike and myself the 5 kilometers home.

A walk which consisted mostly of a dense forest

which for an eight year old little human

can be really scary during the autumn and winter

months during which the dark(evening) sets in at 

three o'clock in the afternoon.

It was during one of those long walks home

that I first realized just how rich and musical

the sounds of the forest was.

*

I am not a twitcher so I don't know birds

by their names, but I am a musician so I know

them by their songs.

Every season has provided me with different singers.

Some of them familiar to me and some of them

for me to get to know.

Sometimes the occasional bird of prey 

would let me know that it was around.

Its haunting screech suddenly filling

the air like a soprano who just reached too far.

But always, always cheering me up and

making my walk home shorter and more

delightful; those chittering, twittering,

 flittering and magnificently azure blue 

tiny little wrens. 

I am worried about the future for our

feathered friends. We, the people, have figured out 

how to melt the ice caps, to cut down earths ''lungs'',

to poison rivers and creeks, to overuse fertile soil

until it is fertile no more, and how to weaponize microbes

to kill everything alive and now..............

and now we want to set a ''something'' loose on

our planet that we know is capable of ''freeing''

itself from its makers. Really? 

We didn't learn from Hiroshima to think first?

Although mankind is a striving, driving and

endlessly inventive entity(as in biological living thing),

may I be so bold as to suggest that mankind is

also a ruthless steamroller kind of thing

which in its pursuit of riches and power

is apparently oblivious to that

once it has acquired all it desires,

there's no Living Planet left.

''Only when the last tree has died

and the last river been poisoned

and the last fish been caught

will we realize we cannot

eat money.''

(Cree Native American Prophecy)

''Let us not run hastily into a future without

first making sure that we will find light there.''

(Citizen Z)

about the image: top Ink on paper ...Title: Robochicks?

middle: Acrylic and eyeline pencils on large canvas

Title: What are we teaching our children?

Bottom: Digital photo

Title: Without light, what is there?

Time is a word.........but what IS IT really?

A long time ago when time was mere numbers on

a something, now, ''time'' for me is not only numbers on

a something or for a something,

 but also a something that is making it

abundantly clear to me that time is 

not a matter, a something, an ''it''.

Although, what ''it'' is, time is a word/term

that we have come up with in order to

make life slightly more ordered and 

 predictable methinks.

Once we figured out how to measure

time with clocks, then eventually

as our cultures kept progressing,

clock time more and more became the

central societal hub around which

mankind has organized itself.

Time is a construct, something mankind has

invented so say those in the know.

It is the measurement of a progression of

events(something?)moving from then

through now to a new then, methinks.

Time, the actual sense of it

happening/taking place is not something 

we can feel, see, taste or touch.

Time perception is a subjective experience

and how we sense or experience it depends

on our individual understanding of it.

When we are having fun, we often say 

words to the effect of ''time flies when

you're having fun.''

But when we are worried about a child

not coming home on time or a spouse

not answering his/her/their phone

late at night, my personal experience

is that it feels like time is exponentially

slowing down.

Emotional states bend our perception

of time by altering our bodily

signals such as hunger, pain,

heart rate and anxiousness.

Clocks measure uniform time.

Us, not so much.

We experience time subjectively

and flowingly rather than

uniformly.

We are malleable creatures.

Actually, we are malleable and emotional

creatures which means that though

we may hope to be level headed

and rational beings most of

the time, a lot of the time

we lose track of time due

to the fact that we are

thinking, feeling and

caring human

beings.

(You may disagree with some of the stuff

I've written here, so please remember that 

these are just my musings although

always supported by a lot of research first.)

about the image: acrylic on small-ish canvas.

Title: The Boy with the Golden Heart.

(aka. my son)

I've written a number of songs inspired

by my son. If you would like to

listen click on this:

This track is called ''For my Son''

Just walk away, they say.................easier said than done

                                                                               

Just walk away, they say.

Don't stay, they say.

Why don't you just leave, they say.

It takes two to Tango, so if you stay

though you know you should leave,

then you're culpable, so they say.

Only a fool would stay, they say.

Don't be an idiot, walk away, they say.

Who are ''they'' who say these things?

There's a line in a Craig David song

that at the time when the song

 ''I'm walking away'' was in the charts

really stuck with me.

''I'm walking away from the troubles in

my life,

I'm walking away to find a better day.''

At that time I was working in a not only

very badly paid but also bad for me job.

I was lifting far too much heavy stuff

and the treatment by most of my co-

workers there was shocking.

Every day for over three years I tried to

find a way to walk away.

When the doctor told me that I had to 

leave or I would have to be carried away

on a stretcher, I finally walked away.

So, here's the thing in my view.

Walking away is only step 1.

There are so many more steps to come after

 the first one.

If there is danger and children involved

 in not walking away, as with domestic 

abuse situations, a lot of planning and

money is often needed in order to leave.

So before Step 1. there is usually a bunch 

of other steps to be taken.

In my experience for most of us there

is no such thing as ''just''.

(I have ''walked away'' so many times that

I don't actually want to remember exactly

how many any more.)

Walking away is often a very costly affair;

emotionally, physically, monetary, loss of

friends, relatives, jobs, etc. etc. etc.

especially if children are involved.

One of the worst days in my life (so far) was 

sitting alone in court with sweaty hands

holding on to my divorce papers 

while I could hardly breathe from fear

that my heart was going to just stop.

There was no just walking away from

15 years of marrige and a teenage son

no matter the dysfunction of the relationship.

There are millions of people on this globe

that would love to be able to just walk away

from the situations they are currently experiencing.

Some try to walk away only to be faced

with ''walls'' of bias, prejudice, hard-headedness,

intolerance, -isms of different varieties, etc. etc. etc.

Some try and are met with guns and hostility.

Fences are erected, walls are built, angry people

all dressed up and wearing face masks blocks

the entrance from anyone trying to walk away.

Bombs of a myriad of varieties are dropped

on people from even attempting to ''walk away''.

In an era that views itself as technologically

well versed, savvy even, may I ask what 

makes us think we're so smart when we

are excited about creating a machine that eventually

is going to get rid of us because in an era

of machines only, there will be no need for

biological creatures that can be rid of by 

a mere nasty subatomic particle.

Some people make fun and belittle others

who are sincerely trying; ''walking away to

find a better day'' to overcome addictions,

become better parents, find help to become

better humans, to overcome dangerous and destructive

behaviours, etc. etc. etc. or as the particularly obnoxious

person may say; become all kumbaya.

Kumbaya actually means something worthwhile;

peace, unity and togetherness.

However, more often than not it is used sarcastically

as a meme for naiveté, and for the purpose of creating

political and social discourse.

Elon Musk said; ''that the fundamental weakness

of Western civilization is empathy.''

Since then (2025), he has modified that;

Empathy is okay as long as it is

rationally thought through.

I disagree with him. I view empathy as one

of mankind's most valuable attributes.

''Empathy is choosing to see ourselves in another

despite our differences.

It is recognizing that the same humanity - the

same desire for meaning, fulfilment and security

- exists in each of us, even if it's expressed

uniquely.''

(Vivek Murthy)

about the image: white charcoal on black cardboard