Danger, contains philosophy!

As a hint to anyone considering entering the sweepstake, or who would like to make another entry, so far Bonnie has taken 40 pics of the crown of the Chrysler Building, all from the hotel window, and it was only 7 am this morning when I counted.

One of the joys of being anywhere with a local is that you get to see things and go places you never would otherwise.  Last night we went for a meal with Rick, and ate in a local diner that most tourists would pass buy.  Quite apart from a nice family natter (something I know Bonnie misses and that I too feel deprived of) I had one of the most tasty meatloaf and mash with veggies that I could have wanted.  And after came the treat of the trip so far.  As we left the diner, ahead of us was a floodlit pinnacle and Bonnie asked what it was.  I replied "Grand Central Station" and Rick said, "No, it's the other way".  "Yes it is!" the foreign tourist said with glee - "who lives here?"  And we all had a good giggle.  "That's going in the blog." Bonnie contributed, showing that she has got to know me over the years.

Back in the hotel Bonnie took some pictures of the lobby.  The lillies are real.  It has a feeling of 1920s grandeur about it.  It's worth checking out the web site if you haven't already.

Of course I woke about 2 a.m. which would have been about time to take the dog out back home.  But I dropped off again quickly enough with the help of one of the books from my reading list below.  If nothing else it caused me to change my email signature. 

I did lie in bed in the dark for a few moments considering why it is that so many people respond badly to criticism.  One of the reasons I got into Karl Popper was that I read in one of his essays some things I had been thinking for quite a while on that very topic.  It seems to me that it is only through criticism that we find out how our position differs from someone else's.  It's how we discover their view of the world, and by posing a question about the validity of what we have offered, makes us think again.  So at the very least we learn something, and maybe discover something we did not know before.  It's the most valuable thing.

Back in the 1970s in college Cecelia Goodenough made a lot of the need to question what we had accepted because at the very least we got to know it better, and hopefully would get a better, stronger, understanding.  Her subject was Christian Doctrine, which she understood as a journey into truth, so every question had to be asked.  Not all of our group were willing to follow her, and to test their convictions, which is too often the case with people who have religious beliefs, but for those who did, all gained.  She would not have agreed with where my questioning took me, but she would have supported my method. 

"Saper aude" said Kant, dare to know, dare to use your intelligence, dare to distinguish the possibly true from the certainly false.