Tag: Human

Death on Earth

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

Death wakes up. Disoriented.

“Where am I?” she whispers to the cracked dingy walls.

From the open window, the aroma of freshly baked bread wafts in from the nearby bakeshop, followed immediately by stale urine odors rising from the alley three floors below. She stretches and then remembers. She’s no longer a female. She’s no longer a powerful part of the team in Heaven. And she is no longer Death. She’s a human on Earth, her body reeks of New York summer humid, and her mouth tastes the bitterness of her predicament.

Sitting up and running her palm across the scratchy morning chin stubble, she says for the millionth time, “Why did I ever let the Trinity talk me into this?”

Kindness

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins
girl lying on white surface petting gray rabbit
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~  Plato 

 

Kindness. What is it? Is it a thing? No. It’s an attitude. Or an aptitude. Kindness is something we have or we don’t. But if we don’t have it naturally, it’s hopefully something we can learn.

It can be one of those things you learn at home. Your mom and dad might have been kind. Or not. We have some much baggage from our families, don’t we? I know I do. We take the good things and mistrust them. We take the bad things and dwell on them. It’s almost impossible to see how people grow up to be kind, even if they don’t have it modeled for them as children. But they do. Somehow, there are many people who understand Plato’s sentiment. We are all fighting this battle called life. We need to treat each other with the kindness of a soft bunny.

Wouldn’t that be a lovely world to inhabit? I wonder how that would be. I am hoping to find out by starting to be kinder to myself. Selfish? I don’t think so. I think I would treat people more kindly if I had a softer spot for my spirit to enjoy.

Kindness is easier if we’re grateful. For more on being grateful, check out my blog on enough. 

Thank you. Kindly.

 

 

 

 

 

Enough

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

 

photography of body of water
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I Wish You Enough

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.


I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.


I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.


I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.


I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

*

I think we need to talk about “enough” today. I feel like our society does not ever have enough. We don’t have enough money. Time. Love. Youth. “Soul.” Well, that’s simply not true, is it? We have all we need. We can choose to have enough of all of those. We may not know it when our bills don’t get paid. Or we are out of time to do the things we want. We may feel unloved today. Or we may feel old. We may not have “soul” as we approach the written page or the musical paper or the dance floor. “I got nuthin’.”  Or “I don’t have enough of what it takes,” we say to ourselves.

That may be true today. But tomorrow, we may have that glimmer. That spark. That patience. Or we may have a way to save or make money. Find time to do what we want. Or we stop to feel a little extra sliver of appreciation for the few things we have. Even an old beat up pair of shoes is actually pretty sweet if we stop to be grateful, and not compare ourselves to someone down the block or around the corner. We may choose to be glad to have any shoes at all. Or feet.

That’s it. We can do so much if we stop, take stock, and appreciate who we are and how lucky we are. Our attitude determines our life view. And of course, everything is relative. We didn’t know we had enough until we wake up one morning and we’re out of whatever “that” was. Food. Money. Time. Because if you don’t wake up, for instance, you are definitely out of time.  But for today . . .

               . . . you have enough. 

 

The poem above is published in my collection, Giving My Self to the Wind. 

ROBOTS and AI

Posted on by Kathryn Atkins

ROBOTS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

action android device electronics
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Elon Musk thinks people everywhere should be frightened of AI.

Bill Gates told Charlie Rose that AI was potentially more dangerous than a nuclear catastrophe.

Even the recently deceased Stephen Hawking said, “I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

What do you think? Here’s what I don’t like. I don’t like that the first few volleys of conversation in the chat room are AI. Maybe from a robot. I don’t know!

“How can I help you today?”

“I’m sorry you’re having that problem.”

“Let me see if we can find someone to get you an answer.”

“Could you describe the situation in more detail so we can route you to the right person?”

man with steel artificial arm sitting in front of white table
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In fact, as I type this, my AI helper here inside my computer is fixing my spelling, anticipating my words, and adding and subtracting commas.

My AI person is cute, but he’s kind of a badass, don’t you think? He’s shooting me a dirty look because he’s not pleased that he’s been discovered. Ungrateful little wretch. And here I’m giving him the limelight, too.  It’s so hard to get good help.

I get it. AI buys big companies some time on the phone. And it might save them money.

AI might also make it so you’re not needed anymore.

That’s okay. If you’re lucky you can go flip burgers. Wait. They have AI-assisted robots that are flipping burgers. Well, maybe you can pick fruit. Nope. They have AI-assisted robots that are picking the fruit. Ahem. Make that the ripe fruit, as AI bots can figure that out, too. Wait. Is AI bot redundant? No. And it’s not even new. I just saw a post: “AI bots are getting more dates than you.” It’s simply wonderful that technology has made finding a soul mate easier. The good news: We have lots of choices these days. The bad news: They might not be human.

I do feel that my AI bot in my computer here is great eye candy, but I have to say that I agree with Elon, Bill, and Stephen. We’d better be careful. The sci-fi dystopias where the machines take over, the computers outthink our best thinkers, and the fruits pick themselves may not be science fiction at all. Someone needs to have their finger on the “Hold-On-Just-A-Minute-There-Pardner” button. Let’s hope that person is someone on our side and not a robot in human skin.