@ceorl

On the phone, I'm fighting Spanish autocorrect whenever I type in English, so Spanish autocorrect is learning some... odd English exceptions over time.

At my computer my posts are always cleaner from the get-go, but thank you for your patience all the same!

And I appreciate that "slowness". I'm striving for the same. For me, it begins with noticing that much of what I take for righteous response might also be trauma-informed. Doesn't negate my outrage! But it does affect its utility.

@MLClark

I just smile and wait. I know exactly what you are doing and why. Typos bug me too, but I am trying to let go of that. You are a pro writer though, so you want it clean :)

You are always fast moving compared to me, which is who you are, and what you are doing right now, but you are also very aware and careful.

And yes there are also times when the correct response to a situation is *explosive*

@ceorl

Well, you set an excellent example in both presence and care from where I'm sitting, Ceorl. I look forward to one day having mastered even your current level of "moving slow" where it counts.

(And still exploding where it matters, too.)

@MLClark

Aw shucks! Thanks for saying, but I am still learning and working on it. CoSo is a great laboratory for refining interpersonal skills.

Still, it has not been long since I accidentally *lit up* a perfectly nice person here in a very negative way due to a careless word.

It happens, but an ongoing challenge :)

@ceorl

I was just chatting with a nephew about similar: He's 16 and super-keen to learn the One Right Way to speak and write.

So, we had the semiotics chat, about how language doesn't contain fixed meanings, and how we'll *always* need to pay attention to how others are using specific words, then vary our speech according to contextual needs.

He was a bit rattled that his English Prof Aunt says there's no One True Way to communicate, but better to be "shook" now by relativism than later on!

@MLClark @ceorl I heard it somewhere (this is rough paraphrase) English mugs other languages in the dark and robs them of their grammar.

It is a mixed bag of many things, and still evolving. The difference in UK and American dialects alone can be staggering.

Words are the means to meaning, but I think its a little different for everyone.

@NiveusLepus @MLClark

It is always practical to speak the mongrel tongue of the age you inhabit :)

@NiveusLepus @ceorl

Wittgenstein had a famous analogy for this.

He asks us to imagine we all have our own beetle in a box. No one else can see ours, and as much as we try to describe it to others, the fullness of the beetle in *our* box can never be put perfectly to words. At the same time, everyone has their *own* beetle, so we all risk believing that our experience of a beetle is close enough, when someone talks about their own.

But have you SEEN how much variation in beetles exists?! 😬

@NiveusLepus @ceorl

NB: Long before this, we also had the fable of a group of blind men describing an elephant, each pronouncing different "truths" about the same animal based on the body part they were touching.

But this is a highly ableist fable, while the idea of us all walking around sharing our inner beetles as best we can with each other is a lot more fun. :)

@MLClark @ceorl The Elephant fable almost perfectly describes how I see the afterlife.

@MLClark @ceorl This is a rad allegory!

@NiveusLepus @MLClark

I was grooving on it too, thinking of a planet of the blind.

Oh the misconceptions!

@ceorl @NiveusLepus

Hah! Don't get me started on how much José Saramago's BLINDNESS drove me batty, by conveniently sweeping aside the existence of actively blind people to make space for an atavistic hypothetical.

Oh, we silly humans. :)

But Rebecca, that's a lovely thought for the afterlife. I'll still be setting up shop in the "indifferent nothingness" corner, mind you, but may there be eternal fields of clover in whatever part you call your own. 🤗

@MLClark @ceorl You remind me of my Aunt Karen, who passed last year.

She was a bright and boisterous soul, an editor and a therapist, who firmly atheistic.

But we always talked about everything, and she would challenge me, always respectfully, about my beliefs.

It was always in a quest to learn about one another, which made each conversation beautiful, and I'd almost invariably tell her.

"I look forward to you being pleasantly surprised."

A soul like hers, need never fear the dark.

@MLClark @ceorl I will be like Ceorl, and not touch the typo...

*Mantra mantra mantra*

@NiveusLepus @ceorl

My aunt is a YEC, and definitely holds Evangelical views on a number of issues of deep importance to me. She was anti-vax and a COVID-denier (faith healing, etc), too.

But she doesn't push her views on anyone, & simply left communities uncomfortable with her presence during COVID.

She also sits with people in crisis & helps where she can.

And first turned to Jesus because her father was awful.

People contain multitudes.
What a gift to be able to lean into what we share.

@MLClark @ceorl You have exactly right. You are a being full of wisdom.

People can be at odds without going to war. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness, and that includes the diversity of divergent points of view.

It becomes toxic when people will only make room for themselves.

@MLClark

I 💯 this!

My aim when writing to be understood.

(unless being playfully poetic)

That means learning all I can about dialects and cultures and mindsets and motivations so that I can get through in the way I want to.

Sometimes it works, brilliantly.

@MLClark

^^^

*hehe, notice me NOT fixing my typo*

@ceorl @MLClark Is this like the Buddhist lesson about the cup being already broken?

@NiveusLepus @MLClark

Reminds me of when I used to give presentations, and mentor others on them.

I would suggest including one trivial error fairly early on, an error that works only very slightly against your case, without negating it.

Then if you are lucky, the pickiest most detail oriented critic will find that, and then sit back arms crossed satisfied with themselves the rest of the meeting.

Also makes novice presenters feel good to manipulate their audience like that

@ceorl

You renegade! 😂 This will surely be the ruin of society.

@MLClark @ceorl I hope I'm not intruding into the the thread, but I wanted to say you are both groovy souls and wonderful allies to have.

I have learned and continue to learn much from each of you. Thanks for being awesome and sharing your hearts here every day.

@NiveusLepus @ceorl

And you for sharing yours! ❤️ 🤗 Hop in any time, Rebecca!

@MLClark @ceorl ^_^ Very happy to be here.

@NiveusLepus @MLClark

Never an intrusion :)

And I love it when the company I choose also chooses each other.

It starts a kind of resonance 📳 vibe :)

@ceorl

Oh! But there is also another silly bugbear that affects my posts. 🤭

The line width on the text box in CoSo is a little longer than the line width for the final column on both desktop and mobile versions, which means that the editor in me sometimes re-edits a post just to get rid of surprise "orphans": single words on a line of their own in the final post.

Pure aesthetic nonsense carried over from my work as an editor of print publications. I'm trying to let go of that bugbear, too.

@MLClark

I know just what you mean. It is completely different in Simplified mode as well.

Also, have you tried playing with the drag handles at the right edges of the column headings?

I would not mind a tiny bit more formatting control :)

@ceorl

Oh, I just tried that on my desktop now! Doesn't fix the mobile, but what a lovely restful difference for my eyes at the computer. Thanks for the tip!

@MLClark

As a writer, perhaps you are aware of an optimal line length for normal reading?

Like the optimal word chunk size for eye and brain?

The narrow columns do have a bit too much horizontal *bounce* to me, where as full screen is too long a trail of words to follow :)

@ceorl

Hm! We have cultural norms for print publications, which can vary based on the reading level of a text: generally 10-13 words per line for lower- to mid-level reading (i.e., the texts with shorter words!), and 8-10 words per line for higher-level reads.

But online reading is different. For instance, sans serif works better online than it does for analog text, and we're not trained for monotype and double-space sentence starts anymore (a standard for the typewriter era).

@MLClark

Yes, 8 to 10 feels about optimal for me. I never thought about that before, but I know often the narrow columns feel pinched, and I get lost on too long lines :)

@ceorl

I have now widened my CoSo column widths on the desktop to around 8 words per line, and I feel *such* a sense of rest. Thanks again for the lovely tip!