The Bridge #76
looking back to look forward
Hello
We’re celebrating today longevity: 3 years 😮 this month
since The Bridge began! 😀
In celebration, we will be changing up the format today, and taking a bit of a break in September. Thanks as always for sharing of your attention and reading of what I have to share:
(1) A Thing to Help Us Look Back
Here I re-publish a compilation newsletter containing 5 specially-chosen editions of The Bridge (from Aug 2020 - Aug 2022). In those early years I was finding my style and my confidence. I was also publishing via Mailchimp, which is a great platform if you want to sell something. I have since moved to substack because The Bridge is all about encouraging thoughtfulness in action, and I have nothing to sell. For those who seek inspiration, I’ll continue to convert my reflections into words. It’s all about encouraging conversation. Enjoy the look back!
Included also in the compilation is a music playlist of every song ever featured in The Bridge, if that’s of interest. Take a lean back and listen (:
(2) A Thing to Help Us Move Forward
In May & June I co-published a written conversation with Cecilia Scolaro on the power of generative AI technology and the risks when using the tools uncritically. We learned a lot from one another and from the research we did. What inspired us to publish was realizing we are all trainers of AI technology, and we ought to own that fact. Just as our daily actions are political, whether we realize or not, in a similar way our online decisions and behaviors train “artificial intelligence.” It is our collective responsibility to understand better how AI is working, what it can truly change and what it will not.
(3) A Thing You Can Expect More Of in the Future
This is a short story, a fable if you will. I hope you enjoy it:
A deer met a fox in the forest and said, “What are you doing here? Where am I going?”
The fox smiled, “Where you’re going, I don’t know. What I’m doing is farming.”
The deer laughed, “You’re funny. A farming fox! Aren’t you lonely? Let’s farm together instead.”
For years, they shared the same bed.
Some said a deer and a fox can’t live together. Maybe mostly they were right.
The kid was cute though, soothingly soft-eyed and surprisingly sly, and their family so fun… many came to be their friends.
All together they danced — everyone danced. Entranced, they danced, & maybe it was magic. It seemed never to be night.
Night snuck up on them then unexpectedly. The deer sought safety in another’s arms. The fox knew he was not alone. With his child and his friends he waited. The night passed. The light again shone. Life is like that sometimes.
Where is it they were going? Who knows? At the harvest, though, there was food aplenty to share. (For they had farmed together, & others had helped.) Everyone ate til full. The fox and the deer, their kid and their friends, they were happy. Need I say more?
A Final Thing to Say
I’m celebrating the third anniversary of The Bridge today, but a person who inspires me more than anyone else in the world is also worth celebrating (today and every day). Thanks to my partner of 11 years for prioritizing her health these last weeks, for deepening the love for herself, for committing to understand better her own mind and for sticking with me. Much Love ❤️
Can we all just get along?
Really what is goin' wrong?
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny their brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love?
The truth is, with you I feel loved.
JPC