Indeed

I was just there last spring! Saw the cages hanging from the cathedral

Either way, I don’t like it. I wish I knew how to fix it. I miss who I used to be.

Or it’s something I’ve always had with me and I’m only just now realizing it?

Same here. If I had to guess, I’d wager that during the ordination discernment process I developed a deep fear of saying or doing anything that could possibly be construed as wrong or offensive to anyone else, which caused me to retreat inward in a way that I don’t believe is very healthy.

I’ve also wondered if some of it has to do with my experience with church stuff, tbh

For a while I thought it was a lingering effect from the isolation of Covid, but let’s be honest, I can’t go on using that as an excuse forever.

I know I used to be able to carry on a conversation, engage in small talk, participate meaningfully. But more and more over these past few years, I’m finding myself just sitting there quietly, only speaking when I have something awkward or inappropriate to contribute.

Yeah, most of my midwestern friends who had kids have subsequently dropped off the face of the earth, and I don’t get the sense they’re hanging out with other parents a lot, either

Our technologically sophisticated society has collapsed beauty and the artistic process into mere technical skill, but of course it’s more than that.

Instead, maybe we’ll come to cherish imperfection—the wrong notes, the occasional squeaks and screeches of the bow drawing across the strings—that remind us that we create beauty to the best of our abilities, and that this is somehow even more lovely than any eerily flawless AI “art”.

I started wondering if the “Uncanny Valley” quality of generative AI is ultimately going to cause us to devalue the perfection of virtuoso performances.