Puddles of water drift by like rain clouds as drops of water fall and create rings in the atmosphere.
[Cellphone video]
[Bach’s Fugue in B Flat Minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2. Performed by Sviatoslav Richter]
![Chicago, Illinois
[Fuji Velvia 35mm - no post]](http://11.media.tumblr.com/dv0V1E7y8pgs5wojBVKqiaGio1_500.jpg)
The city’s all wrapped up in plastic like an electronic cocoon
If you lay in the street you can hear it humming, building up slowly from underground
If you close your eyes you can observe the blueprint, the man-made dna that spirals breathlessly out of control
As synapses collapse, bridges snap, into a restless utopia, Nutopia
Nutopia - Meg Lee ChinThese lyrics, written in 1997, were intended to parallel Alan Ginsberg’s Howl. It seemed as if my generation was coming down from the angst-high in the early 90s and Meg Lee Chin was at the epicenter. Partially a reflection of the decade’s early abuse, it starts off quoting late-50s original - I saw the best minds of my generation (running on empty)….
I’ve always liked the particular section quoted above. “The city’s all wrapped up in plastic - if you lay in the street you can hear it humming, building up slowly from underground.” The city is an organism on its own. We are just the bacteria that live in it. Some cities are relatively healthy, like Seattle, while others are ill, like Detroit. With the health of the city, so goes the health of its constituents.
But there is a stark difference between these organisms. A city never actually has a pulse, like a mammal, but instead has a hum, like all complex man-made systems. A car hums. A computer hums. When they are awake, alive, turned on - they hum. While we are alive, we pulse.
I’ve always liked the idea of lying down on the sidewalk and listening to the city. For better or for worse, this hum is our future. You can’t see it yet but it’s there. Just listen.
The Why of X
One of the best teachers I’ve ever had, Eugene Wallingford, regularly writes in a thoughtful notebook called Knowing and Doing. He’s a computer scientist, as was I in a previous life. He approaches the study and the craft as a scientist - a position that most people in the field do not actively take. Perhaps that’s why he resonated with me so strongly.
Regardless, I liked the question his daughter posed so much I’m going to shamelessly steal it. She wondered why we commonly use the letter x as a variable to represent the unknown. From algebra to science fiction - it is a powerful and oft-used letter. It is really quite elegant and mysterious.
He happened upon the answer in an article called The Shakespeare of Iran. The gist: it was first used by the Perisan mathematician Omar Khayyam who called it shiy (meaning thing or something in Arabic). That was transliterated to Spanish during the Middle Ages as xay and then abbreviated to x. The other possibility is that it is based on the word xenos, which is Greek for the unknown and then abbreviated to x.
Either way, it is used in the pursuit to explore the unknown. Mathematics gives definition to the fuzzy. Algebra reveals a balance that was previously undisclosed. Geometry concisely explains a shape’s form. Proofs are poems. They have a distinct rhythm and beauty. I’m secretly envious of people who study them.
![[Digital Photo]](http://12.media.tumblr.com/dv0V1E7y8p85x95qeZ3jUVU1o1_500.jpg)
Ridicule me all you want after I die, tell me you love me while I’m still here.
![An empty summer sidewalk lined with trees. Close your eyes, walk and breathe in the humid air. Keep them closed. Listen. Feel the air on your skin. Keep walking. Keep walking… now open them. Indulge in the season.
[Digital Photo]](http://17.media.tumblr.com/dv0V1E7y8oyanumtVJkc2nz1o1_500.jpg)
An empty summer sidewalk lined with trees. Close your eyes, walk and breathe in the humid air. Keep them closed. Listen. Feel the air on your skin. Keep walking. Keep walking… now open them. Indulge in the season.
[Digital Photo]
I sat down to write this afternoon and couldn’t help but notice this man across the table. His stack of papers were about a foot thick altogether. Some pages were met intensely, others he would flip by almost casually. His marks were discreet and free. No borders. No rules. Just an obvious desire to keep his thoughts neat enough for later review. From my perspective behind the computer keyboard I can appreciate watching him in a way that wouldn’t be possible if he was behind a laptop as well.
This is in no way a luddite’s call. Instead it is an appreciation for the world we live in. Sometimes it is cold, efficient and digital. Other accomplishments require organically parsing data, happy accidents and tactile feedback. I suppose this is one of them.
![Kathryn’s tired.
[G1 cell-photo]](http://16.media.tumblr.com/dv0V1E7y8opx2h71SQTi1vNlo1_500.jpg)
