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United for a short time (3)
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nope
[edit] but I think I see where you got that [/edit]
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wed? 
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yep 
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Did you reply to the right post? This answer was a joke, and my serious one is below!
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Yes - 'wed' is short for Wednesday.
Not sure where you got 'one'.
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as one = united, and at one = one o'clock
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Saturday morning, slept in a bit, that usually means 7 AM, and was contemplating taking a walk before the heat struck. Laurie texted me – “there’s a yard sale at the Free Columbia House!” As I’ve been looking for a few specific things (that’s a different story) I thought, what the heck, I might as well take a gander, and that’s a good motivation to get out of lingering mode and into walking exercise mode.
But first, cats need breakfast. Hanging plants need watering. Might as well do the dishes too. Hmmm, litterbox needs cleaning. All the while, I’m wondering what things someone else is acquiring, and I’m becoming more and more conscious of the effect of how a small delay can have far reaching consequences. None-the-less, it felt right to not rush out the door. Even when I did finally exit the house, I stopped to take some pictures of some flowers on my walk up the hill to the center of Philmont where the Free Columbia House yard sale awaited.
I arrived at the intersection of Main St and Maple, and there a tenth of a mile down Maple I could see a throng of people hovering over various and sundry cast away objects which were obscured from view, somewhat reminiscent of vultures circling the decaying carcasses of dead animals.
So, decision time – do I turn left now or do I complete my loop by going up two more blocks, hanging a right up another small hill to the Philmont Reservoir, another right to walk along the reservoir, then a final right onto Summit St that, when it intersects Main St, turns in Maple Ave., and to which my walk always takes me past Freedom Chiropractic and the Carriage House where I used to live – many untold stories of my adventures in the Carriage House!
This was another inflection point in the process – if I turn left right now, I know what awaits – the yard sale. If I stay the normal course, the walk is the usual walk and nothing particularly odd happens, unless you count gazing at the turtles sunning on a log in the middle of the reservoir, or the goslings, now almost grown, still following their mother, Canadian, goose. What effect will my turning left vs. continuing straight have? I did not know, but as the question was very conscious, I decided to continue intuitively forward - the yard sale could wait some more.
As I walked, just before the second block where I turn right, there was a yellow swallowtail butterfly in the middle of the road. It appeared to have a damaged wing from the way it was flapping and flailing furiously but could never get more than a few inches off the ground. A sad sight, perhaps it had an encounter with a car that left it injured but not dead. Leaving it there to meet its final doom by the next passing car, no, that felt so very wrong.
Traffic is pretty light on Main St., even without the COVID effect of reduced business and people still staying at home because frankly, there isn’t much to do anyways. So I ambled into the right side of the road and tried to catch the butterfly. Not an easy task with a flittering, fluttering, distressed winged insect! I was a bit dismayed when a car whizzed by me, avoiding me, but not really slowing down.
There it was, I realized, the first effect – that car, if I hadn’t been in the middle of the right hand lane, would have been the end of the butterfly. The loop of causality and doom had just been altered. At that moment, I caught the butterfly. It stopped its wild flapping and just, well, paused, in the semi-open fist of my hand, closed enough so it couldn’t escape, open enough so as not to crush it.
There’s a lovely garden, a big garden, that a young couple has been nurturing, including building a raised platform for the various large leafy green things they are growing. Their property is edged with these lovely rose bushes (or something similar to rose bushes) and I decided I would carry the butterfly up to their garden and leave it to live out its final hours among something beautiful. As I approached the property, it started twitching in my hand, I assumed that was approval and not panic.
I found a candidate rose-like bush, and bending over, opened my hand, placing the butterfly on a leaf. It sat there for a while, seeming to take in its new bearings, like a blindfolded person that is led somewhere and then the blindfold is removed – what, where am I? It sat there long enough that I thought, hmm, maybe it’ll stay there long enough for me to take a picture of this microscopic essence of sunlight – yellow wings gleaming, edged with the black of night.
But the swallowtail had other ideas. It suddenly launched itself into the air, nary a sign of injury, and with full, powerful, beating of its wings, lofted itself some 200 feet into the air to come to rest far above on a tree branch. It seemed miraculously healed of whatever was ailing it on the road!
What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly? What effect will it have on the little village of Philmont, or even further? What was it that led me to do several small chores, delaying my departure? What was it that asked of myself the question, do I want to turn left to the yard sale or continue my walk? Listening, I took a course of action that affected something, I know not what.
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Marc Clifton wrote: What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly? What effect will it have on the little village of Philmont, or even further? What was it that led me to do several small chores, delaying my departure? What was it that asked of myself the question, do I want to turn left to the yard sale or continue my walk? Listening, I took a course of action that affected something, I know not what.
If you believe in free will, the question is unanswerable. If you don't believe in free will, the answer is incomprehensible.
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I think you just changed something in Beijing. I'm not sure what it was, but surely it was something.
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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Marc Clifton wrote: What effect did I have on the life of that butterfly?
There are two possible answers:
1. It was the butterfly's karma that you should rescue it, so it was predestined. OR
2. You were just repaying what favor the butterfly had done to you in a previous life.
These are answers based on thoughts in my belief, so please feel free to accept or reject these.
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So you're the one who started all these storms!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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A nice little tale about a swallowtail. Perhaps you missed your true vocation.
You've probably caused a major typhoon in East Asia at some time in the future, leading to untold destruction, misery, and loss of life. I hope you're satisfied.  
Seriously, unless you do something that is both extremely rare and influential, I doubt that any single action of yours is likely to have much of a net effect. Those who save butterflies are balanced by those who crush them. This does not mean that one should abandon the attempt to be on the side of the angels, but it does mean that one should have a realistic expectation of the results.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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So, decision time – do I turn left now or do I complete my loop by going up two more blocks, hanging a right up another small hill to the Philmont Reservoir as an Englishman I always have to read driving directions from an American in the Californians[^] accent from SNL, but in all seriousness you made a difference to that butterfly.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Alas - don't overlook the ripples!
Perhaps that passing driver - the one that swerved a bit but didn't slow down - had been a bit of a daydreamer before the sudden apparition of your paused vehicle and yourself. He was just attentive enough to swerve but too close to slow down.
And the effect of this, then? The newly alerted driver - perhaps he avoided a more serious confrontation with he/she and his vehicle down the road? A tree - or perhaps an innocent jogger? A life spared.
Could that have not been the butterfly effect of which you muse? Indeed - and it is perfectly normal - your attention is centered around the strange happenings with the one of nature's countless fleeting instances of beauty and yet, the real change you accomplished was reflected elsewhere.
Yet, we are left with naught else but our musings.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I just had a call from a number I don't recognize. The caller said he was raising money for some police charity. I just hung up immediately. Looking up his number in the White Pages, revealed that he had 39 entries in his criminal record! 
It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cp-Coder wrote: revealed that he had 39 entries in his criminal record!
Amateur.
Cp-Coder wrote: It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion.
Hahahaha; that is the default. We compete.
Even if we nice; evolution is still a thing, and it is a competition.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Cp-Coder wrote: It's getting so that I treat all strangers that approach me with suspicion.
Whenever someone approaches with the intention of doing you harm - run for your life!
The same applies if they intend to do you good.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I don't recall if I posted this here last week here or not, but perhaps this explains your thoughts:
It is a rare thing that a fanatic doesn't see themselves as in the right.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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A post “Why I don’t talk to strangers”.........posted to a global group of 14.6m members,
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I don't consider Lounge member to be strangers!
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Well then, would you be interested in donating money to a police charity I'm running?
Kidding, of course.
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Yes, I am ready to donate a million or so, provided you pay a few thousand upfront to cover taxes, etc.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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