Drawing up meaning

If your baseline assumption is that the universe if meaningless, you will of course find no meaning there. If, on the other hand, you look for, inquire after, draw up the meaning in your circumstances, you will find meaning. Does that mean it’s all “just” in your head and therefore false? Of course not. By embracing the meaningfulness of the cosmos, you are co-creating that meaning alongside it. You are performing the human role of making conscious the interrelatedness of all things.

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Rachel and I just spent an entertaining hour getting a bat out of Darcy’s room. The good news is that our neighborhood has bats! We even saw another one swooping just outside the window, perhaps concerned for his friend.

Tolkien:

[Frodo] found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.

Especially in the autumn. What is it about autumn that stirs up that wanderlust? I also feel it every year.

Welcome to the dog days of summer

We’re in the dog days of summer around here. Hot and humid. But also, the corn is tall and the melons are ripening and the cicadas are sawing. There’s a certain late-imperial decadence in the air. Last year I quoted the Old Farmer’s Almanac definition of “dog days of summer”. I thought about that definition again yesterday because I think they’re wrong about the dates, i.e., July 3 through August 11.

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“Join Ice” by Jesse Welles 🎵

New job starts tomorrow. Feels like the night before the first day of school, right down to getting my backpack ready.

Lots of feelings today. Like everyone, I had plenty of half-assed and “good enough” days. And (as a co-worker would say) it’s accounting work; we’re not saving lives here. But, on the whole, I’m glad I can say I did the work with integrity.

Today is my last day after 24 years. I said some goodbyes yesterday and there will be a few more today. Still having a hard time believing it. And, dangit, there’s a $3,500 variance between the balance sheet and income statement that has me stumped and I may have to leave with it unresolved!

Good episode of The Emerald podcast: “Reimagining our Ancestors.

Adam Kotsko on how the post-literate AI world will kill God