Robots

The Evolution of "Courtly" Love?

The Story

Licenses for Love, and Other Misnomers

The glove compartment is inaccurately named
And everybody knows it
So I'm proposing a swift orderly change

'Cause behind its door, there's nothing to keep my fingers warm
And all I find are souvenirs from better times
Before the gleam of your taillights fading east
To find yourself a better life

I was searching for some legal document
As the rain beat down on the hood
When I stumbled upon pictures I tried to forget
And that's how this idea was drilled into my head

'Cause it's too important to stay the way it's been

There's no blame for how our love did slowly fade
And now that it's gone, it's like it wasn't there at all
And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at night

There's no blame for how our love did slowly fade
And now that it's gone, it's like it wasn't there at all
And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide
Lying awake at night, up all night
When I'm lying awake at night

Lateral Thought

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter.

Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven. If picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven and if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Take a moment to ponder this. What would you recommend that the girl do?
There are three possibilities coming to your mind :

The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

She should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.

Or she should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

“Oh, how clumsy of me!” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

The moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty. The girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

This story is to spot the difference between lateral thinking and logical thinking originally quoted by a well known author Edward de Bono.

Radical Reframings

Static

Deafness to imperatives
is profundity in the wise man,
children and grandchildren
don’t bother him,
don’t alarm him.

To represent a particular outlook,
to act,
to travel hither and yon
are all signs of a world
that doesn’t see clearly.
In front of my window
—wise man says—
is a valley
where shadows pool,
two poplars mark a path,
leading you will know where to.

Perspective
is another word for stasis:
you draw lines,
they ramify
like a creeper—
tendrils explode—
and they disburse crows in swarms
in the winter red of early dawns

then let them settle—

you will know—for whom.

- Gottfried Benn, "Static Poems"