On Tender Hooks
- by Brian Bilston
Let me cut to the cheese:
every time you open your mouth,
I’m on tender hooks.
You charge at the English language
like a bowl in a china shop.
Please nip it in the butt.
On the spurt of the moment,
the phrases tumble out.
It’s time you gave up the goat.
Curve your enthusiasm.
Don’t give them free range.
The chickens will come home to roast.
Now you are in high dungeon.
You think me a damp squid:
on your phrases I shouldn’t impose.
But they spread like wildflowers
in a doggy-dog world,
and your spear of influence grows.
As I grow older, my emphasis seems to be shifting from “What do I know?” to “What difference does it make?” This applies particularly to religion; I have a friend who insists that Jesus is God, or God is Jesus, and I ask, “What difference does it make?” If it doesn’t affect his relationship with the cashier at the grocery store, it’s meaningless. I ask the same question of the NASA solar mission (even though I admit to being fascinated by such things as the sun getting hotter as you move away from it) but I wonder what difference that knowledge will make to us humans on this earth. Will it change the way I live? Will it change the way I interact with you, say, or with my grandson? I’m not saying that NASA shouldn’t have done it, but I’d like them to spell out how this new (and unspecified) knowledge that they expect to gather might make a difference.
Jim T
Jim T – I don’t know whether NASA could put forward a compelling case for this mission. I think in general it’s hard to argue for basic research on practical grounds – at least, on specific and practical grounds. My impression is that they often don’t know what will come of a line of enquiry, but they’re pretty sure that something will.