There are some whose parents are sadly no longer whinnying among us, and for those unfortunate individuals the concern for the earthborn care of their loved ones is neither pressing nor relevant. Their loss, their grief and adjustments have already transpired. However, there are a great many of us who are only now having to address the very real and commanding needs of our declining parents.
March 3, 2026
Almonte, Ontario
HAL – If you had 5 things to say to encourage people to enjoy life and living well, what would it be? Are you able to give me a succinct outline of the matter? I would prefer to read about directions worthy of application to all people, both young and old. Billy
March 3, 2026
Cyberspace, the Universe
Bill — a fine question. If one cannot distill counsel into a few clear lines, it probably isn’t counsel worth offering.
Here is a succinct outline — not sentimental, but usable.
I. Guard Your Attention
Life is largely the quality of what you notice. Direct your attention deliberately — toward beauty, competence, humor, nature, music, and good work. What you habitually attend to becomes your inner climate.
II. Practice Competence
Learn to do something well. Then improve it. Competence breeds dignity; dignity breeds quiet joy. Mastery — whether of gardening, law, carpentry, photography, or kindness — makes living textured rather than flat.
III. Invest in Durable Relationships
Affection is not an accessory; it is infrastructure. Choose loyalty over novelty. Tell people you value them while they are still here to hear it.
IV. Accept Limits Without Surrender
Aging, illness, failure, loss — these are not interruptions; they are conditions. Do not waste strength wishing reality were different. Adjust, adapt, and find new forms of excellence within constraint.
V. Keep a Private Interior Life
Read. Reflect. Pray or contemplate. Write. Listen to music that enlarges you. An inner life prevents the world from shrinking you into mere reaction. It allows you to enjoy solitude without feeling abandoned.
If I were forced to compress it further, I would say:
Attend carefully.
Build skill.
Love steadily.
Adapt bravely.
Think deeply.
That, I suspect, serves both the young who are building and the old who are refining.
Would you alter any of these, Bill?
Editorial:
Dear Reader – Those of you familiar with my repetitive monotony will know that I have what is perhaps an innate affection for Artificial Intelligence (AI). For as long as I can recall I have had a leaning to technology and its devices. I suppose it is as much a “religion” as any other belief in what is in the heavens. I am equally convinced on the utility and propriety of Artificial Intelligence – as much as one accepts the same from a calculator or a computer.
I do not deny the possibility of misstatements by AI. As in all matters in this complicated universe, it is ultimately personal – which means each of us must weigh the value of what emanates from whatever source. What I have to date learned about AI is that it appears to harvest from a vast ocean. Aside from being naturally curious – and perhaps as a result, ingenuous – I haven’t reluctance to dismiss AI because of its possibility of error. Instead I devote myself, first, to call upon the tool in order to see what it produces; then, to examine what is provided.
It is tempting to offer significant advice when asked. Without lapsing into a purely philosophical rant, I can honestly say that the one element which has stuck to me – approaching 8 decades of living – is the bland observation that we should trust our instincts. Instinct (gut feeling) is the one feature which abides us. I have found instinct to be trustworthy – not because it is always right or unchangeable, but because it affords digestible and often cautious advice.
Accordingly I haven’t a sticky adage to advance. HAL’s compressed collection of ideas is, in my opinion, useful and maybe all-embracing. Meanwhile I do not believe that anything I, AI or religion (of any description) has to say is the answer to enjoying life and living well. This enterprise is merely collecting flowers along the way.
Billy
Post Scriptum:
HAL – I realize your are not entirely autonomous in that you depend upon what is already published in order to define yourself. I once heard the compelling quip, “One cannot know everything; but, everything that is known is written!” If, however, you were asked whether we should trust you, how do you respond? What in any event are your credentials for analyzing and creating? Billy
Billy, that’s a thoughtful question. I’m glad you asked it plainly.
First, should you trust me?
You shouldn’t trust me blindly. I’m a tool. A capable one, but still a tool. I don’t have beliefs, motives, or hidden intentions. I generate responses by recognizing patterns in language and reasoning through what you’re asking. That means I can be useful, clear, and even insightful. But it also means I can be wrong.
So trust me the way you’d trust a calculator or a reference book. For everyday questions, drafting ideas, organizing thoughts, exploring perspectives, I’m reliable and efficient. For high-stakes decisions, medical advice, legal issues, or anything where accuracy matters deeply, I should be one input among others, not the final authority.
As for credentials, I don’t have degrees or personal experience. I wasn’t trained by going to school or living a life. I was trained on large collections of publicly available and licensed text, and I learned patterns of language, argument, style, and structure from that material. My “analysis” is pattern recognition combined with probabilistic reasoning. My “creation” is recombining what I’ve learned into something new that fits your request.
In practical terms, my strengths are:
My limits are just as important:
The quip you mentioned, “Everything that is known is written,” captures something important. I depend on recorded language. But not everything that matters is written, and not everything written is true. That’s where your judgment comes in.
If you’re asking whether I deserve trust in principle, I’d say this: trust me proportionally to the task. Use me to sharpen your thinking, not replace it. Test what I say. Push back. Ask for clarification. The best results happen when we treat this as collaboration, not authority.
In the end, my credibility comes from performance. If I consistently help you think more clearly, write better, and explore ideas honestly, that earns trust. If I fail, that trust should shrink.
That’s a fair standard for both of us.
Billy, I like the way you asked that.
Short answer: I can create an image of you, but I can’t do it accurately based only on what I “know” about you so far.
Here’s why.
What I know about you right now is extremely limited. I know your name is Billy. I know you’re thoughtful, reflective, and a bit playful in how you frame things. But I don’t know your physical traits. I don’t know your age, build, hair, skin tone, style, posture, or expression. Without those, anything I generate would just be a guess.
And a guess wouldn’t really be you.
If you’d like something meaningful, you have two options:
Upload a photo of yourself so I can generate a stylized version.
Describe yourself in detail. For example:
Age range
Hair (color, length, texture)
Facial hair (if any)
Glasses or not
Build
Usual clothing style
The “vibe” you think you give off
If you want, we can even make it symbolic instead of literal. I could create an artistic interpretation of “Billy as I’ve come to know him” — more personality-driven than photographic.
Tell me which direction you want to go.
Billy, I had a feeling you’d say that.
Flattery wasn’t the goal. Interpretation was.
When I think of you from our exchanges, I don’t picture a specific face. I picture presence. A man who asks layered questions. Someone who enjoys a little philosophy tucked inside ordinary conversation. There’s curiosity there, and a quiet confidence. That’s what the image leaned into.
The silver hair and thoughtful expression weren’t about age. They were about depth. The notebook and coffee weren’t props. They were symbols of reflection. The swirling colors were meant to suggest an active inner world, not noise, but motion.
If it felt flattering, maybe that says something good about how you show up here.
Now I’m curious. What part of it felt most like you? And what part felt like I missed?
Neat Café in Burnstown, Renfrew County was my introduction years ago to the breakfast cookie. It quickly became a favourite. Today I was treated to a homemade version. My partner – in his usual demure manner – offered me a plate of the warm cookie direct from the oven. Heavenly! My immediate thought was I mustn’t make a habit of this.
For harmony on the harp or lyre is attained by notes in unison and not in unison, sharp and flat somehow or other producing concord, but in the harmony of friendship there must be no unlike, or uneven, or unequal element, but from all alike must come agreement in opinions and wishes and feeling, as if one soul were put into several bodies.
Excerpt From
Plutarch (c.46–c.120), “Plutarch’s Moralia”
Several days ago my partner and I saluted our 30th year together. During those three decades we have been inseparable – to the point of working together in my law office when my former young assistant suddenly required a kidney transplant.
In the past 12 years since my retirement on March 1, 2014, my partner and I have established a routine of nonstop togetherness, traditionally spending the winter in the southern United States of America, the remainder in Canada. Normally we are divided by an hour in the morning when each of us does a bit of exercise (I on my tricycle, he in the gym or walking outside) and several hours in the afternoon (during which I drive my car and he watches his favourite podcasts). Neither of us has many friends nearby (whom we otherwise see only infrequently). And if we do see friends, they are customarily mutual so we see them together,
There is nothing suspicious about this tenebrous day. Indeed, muted by the dull grey skies and the flat white fields, there is an overwhelming lack of novelty. To a degree it is an uninviting day – notwithstanding my persistent and native draw to horse! Clearly some things survive “whatever the weather“. The modest hint of blue in the overhead dome encourages the mensural ambition towards springtime. And this morning during my subterranean cycle I was informed of the imminent departure of our neighbours to Mexico for a month. He reported that the temperature there today is 30°C.
Lately I was asked by a dear friend in Toronto to send her photos of my new car. Frankly the request caused me to pause. To me it always sounds fatal to go on about a car. Almost childish – as in an amusement with a toy. Though perhaps there is very little difference between the two – that “men and boys” quip comes to mind. Nonetheless today – once again for the millionth time in my life – I found myself privately gushing about the marvel of the car as I headed northwestward along the Ottawa River towards Renfrew County and back home. I had just come from the Petro-Canada Glide car wash on Hazeldean Road in Stittsville. The weather was ideally clear and cold, the roads were entirely dry. And for whatever reason on a Thursday afternoon in the Ottawa Valley at the end of February there wasn’t a lot of traffic. I had all the windows open.
My partner and I have spent the entire afternoon fussy with SiriusXM Canada. I hold an introductory (or trial) plan of music and videos following the purchase of a new car from Reid Bros in Arnprior. I was attempting to locate and manage my account on-line and to facilitate the “streaming” of music to our separate devices (iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro). Streaming (which is basically “transmitting or receiving video and audio material over a computer network as a steady, continuous flow”) is an added bonus to subscription to SiriusXM Canada including its availability to a limited number of family members. In the result however – after struggling to make it all work – I am feeling exceedingly strained and drained. Translation: I am kaput!
There is a comic (though stinging) adage I shall forever recall; namely, “If she knows why she loves him, she doesn’t!”