I do like this bit from the New Yorker interview with Nigella Lawson:
The first time I did publicity in the States, I was on some talk show—I don’t know where it was—and someone said to me, “You’ve suffered a lot of loss in your life. What has it taught you?” And I said, “It’s taught me that the universe is random and cruel, or chaotic also.” The panic in this man’s eyes when I said that! Because that’s not an answer he could deal with. I waited for a while, and then I thought, I’ll be kind, so I said, “And it’s taught me to cherish life and be grateful for the good things.” And, oh, the look of relief! He almost sank back in his chair. I feel that often—people ask you questions, but there are only certain answers they want.
Simply divine.
Reminds me of Donald Culross Peattie “May Nineteenth” in An Almanac for Moderns
But grant but a single teleological explanation in biology, and you have left the path of scientific thinking. Plan there may be, but only a working plan, a vast experimentation still in course.
And so for day 2939
29.12.2014