Apr

2016

What’s your “Complexity Quotient”?

Everyone knows that intelligence is not uniform. Some people have stratospheric IQs; others sink below par.
Everyone also knows that intelligence doesn’t necessarily correspond to ability to think. Mensa members can be just as dogmatically fossilized as Homer Simpson. They may know far more about far more things, but they can lock onto their conclusions like a crocodile’s jaws.

Comments (0) Number of views (3436)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: complexity

20

Apr

2016

Not good for lakes, or for us

Author: Jim Taylor

The lake below our house has been glassy calm lately. This happens, sometimes, in spring and fall. The water lies so still that it’s hard to tell the reality from the reflection.
I feel compelled to take pictures. My computer enables me to turn photographs upside down. Sometimes, the mirror image is so perfect even I don’t know which way is up.

Comments (0) Number of views (1277)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: lakes

13

Apr

2016

Revisiting the Ten Commandments

Author: Jim Taylor

A correspondent suggested that I should re-read The Ten Commandments, to get my faith straightened out. So I did.
The Ten Commandments are terse, imperative, and unconditional. They offer no wiggle room, no exceptions, no loopholes for special situations.

Comments (0) Number of views (1212)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: ten commandments

6

Apr

2016

The mind is a many-layered thing

Author: Jim Taylor

I sit here at my computer, thinking about the words that my fingers will type into the next line of text. At the same time, part of my mind stands outside, watching me as I work, noting the way my shoulders tense when I’m searching for a word. And behind that, still another layer observes how my mind is able to observe itself. And behind that, perhaps, still another layer….

Comments (0) Number of views (1204)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: mind

30

Mar

2016

Irreverence won’t hurt God

Author: Jim Taylor

A few years ago, I wrote a satirical ditty to the familiar sea shanty whose chorus goes, “Way, hey and up she rises.” Only I connected it to Easter: “Way, hey, and up He rises… early Easter morning.”
The first verse asked, “What shall we do with a risen saviour…?” The rest of the verses were, umm, a shade more irreverent:

Comments (0) Number of views (3338)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: irreverence

Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

What’s your “Complexity Quotient”?

Not good for lakes, or for us

Revisiting the Ten Commandments

The mind is a many-layered thing

Irreverence won’t hurt God

Categories

Archive