What You Can and Cannot Keep

By Wayne Brown
As the eldest son, it has twice fallen to me to spread the ashes of a parent - the last occasion was in front of a small group of close family on a rifle range, as per my dad's request. It such a situation, one is expected to say something as your dad is committed to the wind.

This is what I said.

to live a life that's wide and deep

to know the things he can and cannot keep


Wide And Deep from "Here We Go" - Karen Savoca 

My dad was a hard-bitten athiest, yet, in the face of death, he was remarkably composed. With tears in his eyes, he said had led a full life. With nothing to look forward to except that ceremony on the rifle range, he was seized by a bittersweet love of life along with the acceptance that it had come to an end.

There are many roads that lead us to the wonderful truths of life. These are rough roads for those who rely on logic and philosophy alone. They are glimpsed by the whole mind with overwhelming emotion and sweep of memory. They are deeply personal, terribly sad, yet full of wonder. Another of Karen Savoca's songs sums it up well ...

isn't life just like the autumn air

it's bitter and it's sweet

i will never understand it all

but that's alright with me


Bittersweet from "Here We Go" - Karen Savoca 



For those of you have never heard of Karen Savoca, you are in for a treat. Visit her home page here.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Facebook and Bing - A Killer Combination

By Wayne Brown
Image
 This is a partial list of groups I belong to that focus on Generative AI art: Facebook creates community. I use BING as a kind of Generative AI university: BING U.  I prefer the role of student, so my job is to find good teachers. Think of me as the guy who shows you around the campus and knows his way around, but he's a student himself. Microsoft BING is free and very powerful. It's an excellent way to learn Generative AI and a standard tool that everyone in my imaginary school has. The way to find a teacher is to see their work in a Facebook group. Then, save the picture that caught your eye in a Word document (or document editor of your choice). For example ... Joe McIntosh What we have found here is not only the prompt for the picture but a teacher who shares the prompts for all his pictures. Look for artists who work primarily with BING. Don't get distracted by other platforms or techniques. Learn to do one thing well before shopping for better tools. The best Facebo
Read more

A Process ...

By Wayne Brown
Image
She will be 105 in September. She struggles to recognize her four children, let alone her countless grandchildren. Today, she said, "Nobody told me how to die." She has always wanted to die in her own home, an oversized place that has always had room for an endless parade of visitors. She has always been very "social." Although she struggles to remember the old friends dropping by, she chats happily "on automatic." There are a lot of relatives. She was raised on a farm near North Battleford, Saskatchewan, where her Russian parents raised 16 children. I asked "AI" - specifically Claude 3 Sonnet , to describe this situation in a short essay. I have taken the liberty of letting Grammarly , my AI writing assistant, make a few corrections to Sonnet's purple prose. This is the slightly edited version: She sits in  the twilight of her extraordinary life, a living embodiment of resilience and grace. At 105 years old, her eyes, dimmed by time, still h
Read more

Warp Speed Generative AI

By Wayne Brown
Image
Jump to Warp Speed Warp 2 Warp 3 Warp 4 "Warp Speed"  Illustration of " Language is a Virus " Laurie Anderson Completed in the time it takes to perform the song For a very long time, I have tried to master information processing tools and "wire" them together into a "machine" that suits my purpose. "Warp Speed Generative AI" combines several powerful families of AI tools to turn an idea into one or more pictures. Along the way, we get an explanation of the original idea, references and a detailed explanation of the style. I call it "Warp speed" because AI seems to give me whiplash as it takes my idea and runs with it. I just hang on and enjoy the ride. "Warp Speed" is a response to the current obsession with prompts: how to write them, when to share them, how to monetize them, what books to read, what courses to take and so forth. AI can write pretty good prompts. "Prompt Engineering" is an endangered speci
Read more