tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post6975106387356600184..comments2023-10-28T04:53:32.505-07:00Comments on View From The Northern Wall: I'll Go Ridingchristopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-34927435850709121802010-08-02T19:47:25.488-07:002010-08-02T19:47:25.488-07:00You raise a farm animal for butchering but you are...You raise a farm animal for butchering but you are a kind and loving farmer. For a considerable period of time you care for the animal, let us say a pig or a number of pigs and treat them as pets, knowing that as you keep happy animals they will absolutely taste better when prepared for table. Because you are loving and know what you are doing and because you are willing to befriend them you raise really happy pigs in enough room that they can establish their toilet far from their food and have a great dust bath nearby and they treat you with trust.<br /><br />Then the day comes. They even quite willingly get in the truck headed to the abbatoir because you have never given them a reason to distrust you. They predict more of the same of course all the way to the butcher.<br /><br />This is actually a true to life story of my former girl friend who had a farm, raising pigs, ducks, chicken and sheep, all for food. It is a sharp illustration of the limits of induction for predicting what comes next. From the standpoint of the pig the rude end is far from their experience. So it is with us far more often than we care to know, even if we do not encounter the abbatoir that way. Many things really important to our futures are so complex or so truly outside our sphere that we cannot predict when or if they ever happen. Instead we insist that by knowing our own pasts we know our futures.<br /><br />Even worse, we tend to forget that we tried to predict yesterday what will happen today as more of the same and it didn't work, so we do it again. That is what we do unless we train, like you say, Elisabeth, train ourselves to remember and to know better. <br /><br />This isn't only bad stuff of course. My day today was quite pleasant but I had no idea when I got up that I would go on a short journey this afternoon. That showed up in the noon hour. I had plans. None of them got done. I even missed lunch.christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04201537517464996231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2377252801421681569.post-49408782597671482172010-08-02T18:48:57.890-07:002010-08-02T18:48:57.890-07:00We want to imagine we have control, as you say, Ch...We want to imagine we have control, as you say, Christoper, desperately and then the unthinkable, the unpredictable happens and we fall apart. <br /><br />That's one of the reasons I try to live cheek by jowl with doubt and uncertainty. But I also try to couple this with a sense of optimism so that like you I can ride with the dragons. <br /><br />Thanks for a beautiful and thoughtful post here, Christopher.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.com