Gatewood Press

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Bring on the Elephant

It’s a nice feeling in the bed beneath the covers in the dark on a cold morning. Everything feels just right. It’s that magical time before you’re born again into a new day. There’s only the here and now and it all feels safe and sound. It’s ends soon enough, of course. Feet hit the cold floor. There’s a bit of a scramble to find the warm robe. And where in the hell are my slippers? It seems as though I could take them off each night by the side of the bed. Too logical, I guess.

The freeze of the night before is now replaced by the temperate mid-50s which seems totally appropriate for Texas weather, and that statement feels totally appropriate for anyone writing about Texas weather and maybe going forward I should simply avoid that cliché. And without even missing a beat Microsoft puts the accent over the e for me in cliché and all my knowledge of ASCII and expanded-ASCII is for naught. Was it a waste? Is knowing anything arcane a waste? Probably not. In fact, I think we should all dedicate ourselves to learning arcane stuff. I believe they call it broadening your horizons.

Then again, maybe learning a little bit about a lot of things is a trap, because it might make you think you know more than you actually know, and that can get you in a serious bind. We all know people really comfortable with what they think they know, as if what they know represents the known universe of knowledge. Saying they can be hard to deal with is an understatement. Nope. The best bet is to seek out the arcane, broaden those old horizons, with the understanding, that like the blind man describing the elephant, you may only be holding the tail. I might go back to bed.