Slooow Letter

Slow letters are letters with the speed of a sailboat or airplane. And at the end of the long road from my snail-mailbox to your snail-mailbox handed over by a postman. In my country they still ride on a bicycle.

Letters here are: online and you can read them here now. Slow letters are not read here. They are sent and days, weeks or months later they arrive. It's content is old by the time you read it.

In a way slow letters feel more personal to me. Especially when they are handwritten.

Slow letters are a surprise. You never know when they're going to arrive. Maybe you'll never receive it at all. You wouldn't know I have sent you one. And I can't determine whether you have received it. Only in retrospect we can - when you give me a signal back. And in between - as time floats slowly: hesitation, uncertainty, boredom and lack of confirmation. In the end always - I guess - resignation.

Reading ...

Our Protagonist

"In twenty (2035) or thirty (2045) years the self-learning computers will outsmart the species 'homo sapiens'. For them discussing with us then, is like us discussing with earthworms now." 

Just a random quote that triggered my mind during a masterclass a couple of weeks ago. Like discussing with an earthworm! I never talk to earthworms. Do you? For me they are: fish bait or those animals who keep the soil airy. I never talk to them - I talk to the chickens but not to earthworms. I never discuss  with them.

What do earthworms think? Earthworm language - an aptitude test:

# begin #
I need food! I crawl further. Tasty little worms. Eat! Nice, another one. Eat! Stone material, I must go around those. Annoying also a tree root. Underneath! Corridor. I've been here before. I move further. More food. Eat this! That! And that! I am about to explode. Let me take a nap under that big tree. Sleep! Awake, what do I feel above me? It's the rhythm of rain. Quick! Move up, on the surface there's always enough to nibble between the grass: dung and decomposing animals. Yummy. It's nice here. Just eat a little more. Never stay too long on the surface because it's danger.  Later tonight I will return to have sex with other worms. With others is better than have sex alone. Much better. Move back.
# end #

And just before she/he [note] went back in her/his corridor to 'Sleep!' a blackbird came along. Who quickly grabbed - veni, vidi, vici - our protagonist in her mouth. A few moments later the senses of our earthworm stopped getting fresh input.

Imagine that we are the earthworm in 2045. Who or what is the blackbird? And whose eyes write and read this fable?

[Note] Earthworms are hermaphrodites. They are 'she' and 'he' at the same time because they have both female and male sexual organs.

Moi Aussi #NousBuvonsChablis

For some, pictures (cartoon, film or photo) hurt more than words. Not only for Muslims fighting for their Caliphate but all who dream of their One God. And their One God only: Allah, God, JWH, Democracy, Peace ... - there must be more.

What to do next? Don't be afraid. Go on with your life as usual. Smile :) Don't take your own opinions too seriously and the opinions of Others either. Communicate and don't get frozen. Always be cautious with those (enemy and friend alike) who believe in their One Dream.

JeSuisCharlie? No you are not Charlie. You aren't Muhammad either. You are you. Let's drink all of us 'homo sapiens' a few glasses - not too much - of wine. Friend and foe. In French:WeDrinkWine #NousBuvonsChablis.

#JeSuisCharlie should read #NousBuvonsChablis (c) JeanD99

Remember, these monotheistic fighters, fight via ("unfair") guerrilla warfare because they can't win this war via a ("fair") regular fight. Remember, all present nations - my hypothesis there is not one exception - are born via groups of parvenus who once started their own guerrilla: Dutch against Spain, Americans against England, Indonesians against The Netherlands, Israel against England, Cabo Verde Islands against Portugal.

P.S. I wrote on this before: 'Democracy is a monotheistic religion' (November 2009), 'You know'  (May 2012), 'Patina' (August 2013)

Monky Me

C.N. Parkinson's (1909-1993) first law reads "Work Expands so as to fill the Time Available for its completion". An example of this law, if a meeting is scheduled for 2 hours, we will take 2 hours to talk and finish the meeting. If for the same meeting 45 minutes is scheduled, we will "only" take 45 minutes.

What still puzzles me is the time I invest in my projects. For example, definition of happiness in ancient Egypt, Cabo Verde maps before 1900, the wind that blows me in a new track of books to explore. Generalized this law must read (c) JeanD99: The Demand Upon the Resource Time Tends to Increase to Match the Urgency. 

I never have time to read or start a new project but time and again I feel suddenly an urgency so strong that I will skip all the other activities for days (sometimes weeks) and invest all my time in this project. This project is always new, exciting and urgent. And gives me great satisfaction. Monastic (say "monky") me.

P.S. I wrote on this before in my blog 'Still there? It's about you too' (September 2011)