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CyndaP's avatar

Not being Catholic, I’m not sure what the proper words are, but long live Pope Leo.

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Seth Haines's avatar

Cynda, those are great words. And I agree. May he grow into the Pope we need to speak what's true and call the world to love.

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Paul LaPenna's avatar

As a doctor during the pandemic, it was nonstop work—I never felt like I had a moment to look up at the world out there. When it was over, it was, and still is, shocking how much things changed. You captured this truth well in writing this.

When we use GPS to get around, our posterior hippocampus (the part of the brain that helps us with spatial memory) begins to atrophy. I wonder what will become of our brains when we stop contemplating, planning, organizing, deliberating, searching for just the right word, and so on.

I’m grateful for Pope Leo XIV.

Keep writing!

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Seth Haines's avatar

Thanks, Paul. Also, thanks for sharing about the posterior hippocampus. I definitely think something is changing in our brains based on the lack of contemplation. The speed with which we react to and wrote about EVERYTHING is not natural. These days I wonder how much of the work we read is 100% human generated.

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Shawn Ruby's avatar

That deserves a way better ending tying together the child-father theme and bringing in ai into that, with an insight, that builds upon what leo 13's insight was. It shows a continuation of fatherhood. Even better if it was an insight that showed us developing through this relation.

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Seth Haines's avatar

Maybe I’ll leave this in a part II. Thanks for your thoughts, though. I always appreciate constructive feedback.

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Laura Kelly Fanucci's avatar

Whew, Seth. So much good food for thought here. (Or maybe, like toddlers, we want to throw some of it across the room.)

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Laura Kelly Fanucci's avatar

Whoops, didn’t mean to click “post.” Meant to add that I’m reading this in the lobby of Mayo Clinic, this grand cathedral of modern medicine. And I’m struck by how persistent the myth of progress continues to be: ever onward, ever better, till we become a super-human race. But what folly - though of course I’m grateful for the science that helped saved my life. We remain human all the way through. God save us from ourselves.

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