February 25
Spring is not a day
Spring is not when we wrap up winter
Not when we push away the snowclouds
Not when we bring the chirpy birds back.
Spring is not when the ice on the ponds is broken
Not when the new seeds are planted
Not when Mom thinks about having just one more foal
Spring is flowers
Bursting forth from the earth to sing to the sun
And to show off their blooms.
Spring is the smell of flowers
And fields dotted with dandelions
All gone to seed
Spring is galloping through the dandelions
And getting covered in downy fluff.
___________________________________________________________
It's hard to write poetry. It's like a painting and I don't know if anybody else will get it. I know what it means to me, but what does it mean to an audience? Did I choose the right words?
Poems seem so short and easy, and they're not.
I bet the other students struggle with it, too.
I asked Peggy what she thought, and she said that it was pretty. Then I asked her about what being a human child was like. She liked to play with her dolls and sometimes she'd steal her brother's GI Joes because not all her dolls had boyfriends and she thought some of them must be lonely.
I thought that was pretty funny, and kind of cute. She asked if we had pony dolls, and I told her that I had a stuffed albatross that my Mom said was very special because albatrosses can fly forever and not land. But that was all. My other toys were clouds and the open sky, and that's all a pegasus really needs.
I tried to sketch out a little poem about my albatross before class, but nothing really came to me that seemed worthy of a poem. I had called her 'Albie' and worn smooth spots in her plush from hugging her and one of her eyes had come off and nopony in our house knew how to sew it back on so I just put a little black dot of paint in place of the missing eye, and one time I threw her off a cloud to see if she could actually fly and then spent the rest of the day looking for her. But nobody would want to read a poem about that.
Conrad was still in a whimsical mood. First he asked for everyone to turn in their poems because he said it would be distracting if we were thinking about them all class long, and then he read us a poem called Jake Says. I'd never thought about orphans that way, but I guess they are blessed. My Mom wanted me, but some of my friends in school were kind of by mistake. Plus a lot of times you don't really know how a foal's going to turn out.
Then he had me read Falling Up, which really spoke to me. Except for the part about puking; I've never done that from flying, although I kinda came close when I was on the airplane.
He had Trevor read Hug of War which was a good poem for him to read. Trevor has a nice, deep voice. I think that was his way of reacting to what had happened last weekend. Sometimes—
Sometimes a pony or a person really only knows one way to cope with things that are terrible, and maybe for Conrad it's poems. When the weight of the world gets too heavy on my back I can fly because the higher I go the less there is below me. Some ponies make gardens; when Wysteria lost her mother she made the most beautiful flower garden I have ever seen. And there was a stallion on our team who shaped clouds and then set them free over the ocean.
He finished off the day with a poem he said that he had never taught before. He said that I had inspired him. It was called Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony. I was blushing before he was halfway through with the poem. I know why he wanted to teach it.
So when class was over I went up to his desk and gave him a big hug and thanked him for reading that poem for me. Conrad said it wasn't for me, it was for him. He told me that he used to think that Abigail was a silly little girl who was maybe just a little bit spoiled, but now that he knew me he couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have me in his class.
I was blushing again, and I really didn't know what to say, so I put my hooves up on his chair and kissed him on the cheek and then went out of the class before my fur burned off from embarrassment.
On the way out of the building, I saw Trevor with a group of his friends, and I kind of was a bit hesitant to approach them because they were all big and dark like Trevor, but his face lit up and he crouched down and introduced me to all of them. I said he'd done a beautiful reading of Hug of War, and then all four of his friends just looked at him and then at me and my ears and tail went down 'cause I thought I'd said something wrong. Trevor stepped back and moved his feet apart and I could see his shoulders tense just a little bit.
Then Cedric—who was the biggest one—asked what Hug of War was about, and before I could stop myself I said that it was about hugging not fighting. He asked Trevor if he thought that would work, and my traitor mouth said it would before Trevor could say anything in his defense.
Cedric looked down at me and said I ought to prove it to him. I was really nervous; he was so much bigger than me and when I got close enough for him to grab me there wouldn't be any escaping. But then he crouched down and that was a little better, so I moved in and got up on my hind hooves and bravely wrapped my forelegs around him as best as I could, then bowed my head submissively.
For the longest time, he didn't move at all. The whole hallway got completely quiet; I could barely hear anybody even breathing. Then I heard him mutter 'aw hell,' and he put his arms around me and hugged me back.
When we finally broke our embrace, he admitted that maybe Trevor was on to something after all, and Trevor held out his arms. Cedric gave him a flat look and told him not to push his luck, then punched him in the shoulder, but not too hard.
It was all very strange. I should have thought first before I stuck my muzzle in a band of bachelors; even among humans they have a totally different dynamic than a proper mixed herd or all mares and since I mostly knew girls on campus I wasn't familiar with it.
Just the same it had turned out all right in the end, and I wound up eating dinner with them, too. I hadn't planned to, but Cedric saw me when I was picking out food and asked if I'd join them and even offered to carry my tray for me.
All five of them were actually really nice, and I wished I'd gotten to know them sooner. Cedric said that in the fall, he was a defensive tackle on the football team (which is a good place for a big man; I knew that much about football at least) and Leon who was pretty skinny said he was a wide receiver.
We talked a bit about football, and then they wanted to know what sorts of games we played, so I told them about hoofball (which is kind of like football). Cedric looked at me very seriously and said that it was my sacred duty as an ambassador to introduce Quidditch to ponies.
I didn't know what that was, so he explained it to me, and Leon chimed in too, then Trevor showed me a video of a game on his telephone. Then they started talking about Hogwarts and wanted to know if pony universities had moving staircases and talking pictures and trolls in the basement, and I said that they probably had those at unicorn-only schools.
By the end of dinner, they had all decided that I ought to watch Harry Potter. I told them that I would try but there were so many other things going on that I wanted to do I didn't know when I would have time, and I was already not watching as much Star Trek as I ought to be and had also fallen behind in reading the Bible. I didn't want to make a promise I couldn't keep, but I said that I would watch at least one of them before Spring Break.
I was in a really cheery mood when I went over to DeWaters. Meghan asked how my day had been and I told her about all of Trevor's friends and how nice they'd turned out to be and Harry Potter, and it turned out that Lisa had all the movies.
I hadn't been planning to watch one so quickly, and Lisa said that she had to do homework anyway so tonight wasn't a good night for it. Becky came over and we chatted for a little bit while the tub was filling, and then I got in.
Now that I'd been in a real hot tub, the bathtub just wasn't as nice. Meghan wouldn't get in with me, even though I told her she could, because she said it would just be too crowded. She was probably right, but it made it kind of lonely, even with her right there sitting on the toilet and talking to me.
But after I got out, she wanted to groom me again, and that helped make up for the lack of bonding in the bathtub. It was so relaxing having her brush out my coat I wound up falling asleep on her bed.
Spring is not a day, I can't agree more. Spring is a moment, a moment of lights and joy, when life come back from the winter slumber.
There is a reason why some revolutionary events were called "the Spring of", it is more then just a day (or a few day), it is a promise.
That being said, I'm going to enjoy a beautiful sunny spring day, doing bicycle all day long!
I see Silver Glow's casual racism isn't species-bound. (Kudos to you, Admiral, if having Silver address this character flaw as a result of her time on Earth was part of the plan all along.)
She really just doesn't know much about unicorns, does she? I wonder if Conrad will eventually be the one to take her to task over that...
That's the hard part of putting a creative work out into the world. It's a piece of you. The key is to be content with that, and let others react how they will.
...I would....
Now she's in with the brothers. I think Trumpians are the only people she hasn't made friends with.
Awww...
That sounds utterly adorable. And it worked!
I'm not sure what part of Little Abigail is supposed to be poetry. It doesn't rhyme, have alliteration, or even seem to have much of a discernible tempo.
7146182
Actually, that is exactly how science works. In fact, that is how all inquiries into the nature of reality work. The very fact that there are arguments, problems, and confusion is proof of this. Faith does not mean that I believe something despite 0% evidence for it. It means I have more than 50%, but less than 100%, evidence for it. Science does not create absolute knowledge, it creates working theories. Oftentimes, theories with 99.99999% certainty, but still technically not completely certain.
I brought up a bunch of legitimate problems with the theory of evolution. Now, I'm no scientist; I don't know exactly how bad they were, or to what degree they have been solved, but the point is that they were there, and they challenged the theory of evolution. And yet, scientists did not simply discard the theory, because evolution was still a mostly trustworthy idea. Even today, there are serious problems with the theory, like Irreducible complexity. And yet, we still don't throw it out.
Again, I'm no scientist, and all of this is just an example. The point, though, is that we cannot know everything, and we have to accept that, at the end of the day, we have to decide if a theory is trustworthy enough for us to believe in it.
I keep forgetting how much I love the works of Shel Silverstein. I have a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends in the back seat of my car just in case I get stuck somewhere and need something to read.
He's always made great works, but never in the quantity that other authors have. It's like he'll only put out something new if he can fill it with greatness, and I respect that.
I'm not so sure Harry Potter is such a good idea, isn't there a scene where they kill a unicorn?
On the other hand, she could not react to it and thus reveal her tribalist attitude to her friends.
Makes me kinda regret that Zootopia isn't out yet in this story.
7146448
You're equating two different things-- faith, which is unjustified belief, and justified beliefs that sciences engage in.
A scientist is justified in "believing" things like evolution or such, because they have been tested, and what more they can be used to predict, accurately, not yet tested things. The fact that a scientist can do so with a "theory" suggests and they must be getting at a truth.
In contrast, beliefs based on faith are unjustified and predict nothing.
7146590
What's the difference between faith and belief? And when does justification come into it? Faith, in itself, is neither justified nor unjustified. It's just faith. It can be justified faith or unjustified faith.
Whenever people here the word "faith" they automatically assume that it's unjustified. This is a fallacy based in popular culture.
April showers bring May flowers. That is what I'm dealing with. All the while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.
7146668
Faith is unjustified belief, you cannot have 'justified' faith because 'justified faith' would be knowledge or something very similar to it.
7146448
"Irreducible complexity" is just creationism though, repackaged to be intentionally difficult to understand to the non-scientist. The entire point of it is to confuse what they're saying to appear as though they're making a reasonable objection to evolution, and to pretend it's not just a rehash of Paley's watchmaker.
Paley's watchmaker is actually older as an analogy than the Theory of Evolution itself is! It literally wasn't a new argument when the idea of Natural Selection was first being discussed! Natural Selection was seen as an improvement on it from the beginning! It really doesn't bring any more to the table than it did back then, and it's not something that's seriously discussed by evolutionary biologists as a scientific problem they need to solve.
The examples of supposed "irreducible complexity" proposed by the creationists don't in reality say anything other than "we haven't yet come up with an explanation for how this evolved" - they're not actually problems with evolution at all! Because pointing out an interesting thing we don't know the workings of is an excellent way to get a scientist to work it out, they also tend to actually be solved by real scientists faster than the creationists come up with new examples of "irreducibly complex" things. Even to the point that it's a pretty safe bet that whatever example is currently being trotted out by the usual suspects on their speaking tours will already have been solved.
A real scientist would not continue using disproved examples like that. The people who do that are purely in it for ideological reasons or to take the money of creationists who want to be reassured that the science is really on their side. It doesn't matter to them that their examples of things that "are impossible to have evolved naturally" keep getting explained by scientists as "hey, here's a method by which that could have evolved". They'll just pick something else that hasn't yet been explained, claim that even though the last one was, this one can't be explained, and then keep using that one long past the point it's also been explained.
wow all the people abusing the comments as PM system...
so much attention w****ing.
the chapter was nice, funny how Silver Glow is able to become friends with nearly everyone
7146590
7146668
7146704
Ugh, I was really hoping we were done with this.
Short version, LittleKhan is referring to a right idea using a wrong term. There do exist cases where it's legitimate to use "faith" for partly or fully justified beliefs, but this isn't one of them. No matter how appropriate and appealing it might seem to use faith when talking about beliefs in general, including justified ones [1*], that doesn't line up with how the vast majority of the population uses the term, and so using it that way is wrong. You can't just redefine words at will, and this is no exception.
That said, it might be prudent to let the incorrect use of "faith" slide for now to free up attention for more important things. I'm less-than-optimistic that continuing the definitions debate is going to suddenly become productive, and what LittleKhan intends to mean is clear enough.
[*1] It would definitely be helpful. "confidence" is a workable alternative, but hardly ideal.
7146797
I don't mind the discussion. I've already learned some new stuff and will undoubtedly learn more before this is over.
One of my main goals of the story was to prompt discussion and inspire readers, and given that there are now more comments than story views, I think I am achieving that objective.
7146704
When I was little, it would sometimes happen that one or the other of my parents would need to go on a trip of some kind, leaving the other to take care of me and my sister. My father once commented on how he could watch my mom zip off on business trips with perfect confidence that she wouldn't cheat on him while she was away.
My dad based that belief on decades of experience with my mom and on observation of her character before and since their marriage. He couldn't prove that she was keeping her marriage vows--not without some elaborate surveillance system, anyway--but he didn't need proof. He knew her, and that was enough.
That's what justified faith looks like. It's rooted in knowledge, but distinct from it.
One thing that's been kind of bugging me--why hasn't Equestrian poetry been brought up? I'll grant that it's probably not in English originally, but I'm sure someone has been translating them, and it'd be an interesting thing gven Silver Glow's in the class.
7146910
Your father may have made certain predictions based on observations, but without testing them (not that I'm suggesting he should) they're not really justified. Faith is by definition a belief that isn't justified, and the idea of a 'justified faith' is an oxymoron.
7146932 Is it right for my dad to believe things that are unjustified, then? What does "justified" mean to you?
7146882
but... the "Académie française" does it all the time! and they're the ones writing the french dictionary!
7146467 Yes, but that's an action done by a villain, and clearly depicted as a bad thing. Although the implications of unicorn blood granting immortality and hurting a unicorn being a mortal sin would probably still trigger her tribalist thoughts.
Quidditch.
7146932 Probably because Silver isn't welled versed in poetry before the class (since there is likely a pony equivalent to all the ones she's being taught {that don't specifically include humans}). But, as someone who writes poetry & lyrics occasionally; we would like to see some of your own pony-poetry or neigh-ku.
I'm a bit worried though about the relationship she has with Aric. Things seem fine for now, but humans and ponies seem to have different ideas of what is acceptable. Especially when it comes to sex and shame. Since Silver knows humans have a fascination with cameras and recording things (so far she's seen them record everything) she may convince Aric to record one of their nights. Aric may think it's kinky and want to be open minded for his mare friend. So he could agree not knowing that Silver is going to up load it to her facebook to share with her friends and family as such things are a lot more open and maybe her pony friend on Earth she writes letters to was curious and wanted to know how everything works with a human.
It gets to Youtube and things explode and Silver is confused as to why humans are reacting in certain ways over what to her is no big deal.
I'm just waiting for some big cultural misunderstanding to happen.
7146467 Why? Wanting to see Silver's react to Judy Hopps' 'naturalist' visit?
7147249 While that would be amusing, I was thinking more about the themes of the movie. You know, the incredibly unsubtle one about racism?
7147021
Whether it is right or wrong doesn't really matter, so long as you don't pretend unjustified things (ie taken on faith) are equivalent or equally valuable as knowledge/justified beliefs.
'Justified' means that there is good reason to think it's true, typically it would involve approaching the belief and examining it and/or making predictions that might arise from that belief, if that belief were true, and testing and attempting to verify those predictions.
7147021
It wouldn't be right for him to believe something unjustified, but that's not relevant to this particular instance - his faith in his wife is justified. You see...
7146910
7147327
Faith has different meanings different contexts. That meaning (justified knowledge of character) is valid, just not in the original context of this current discussion (unjustified "knowledge" of concepts).
You need to be really careful with words like faith, because in my experience most people latch onto just one meaning and try to use it in every context, no matter how wildly inappropriate it is there. Since almost no-one bothers to make sure everyone involved is using the same meaning, this tends to result in situations where people spend ages fighting over terminology without realizing they're not actually discussing the ostensible topic of the conversation; I've even encountered a few cases where the participants brought me up to speed on a debate several hours in, and it turned out they'd been in complete agreement with each other's positions since before they even started.
7146932
By that logic, wouldn't (for example) the vast majority of our knowledge of the past also be unjustified? After all, it's not like we've ever gone back and tested it.... (Or maybe it would be more appropriate to use climate change: we haven't run the clock into the future to see what the world looks like a century from now, so our climate predictions based on observations also aren't tested, yet.)
The mere fact that something hasn't been directly tested doesn't make it unjustified. He might not have directly proof that she was being faithful (yet another definition to watch out for...), but by this point he knows her quite well, and given that knowledge, her cheating would be very Out Of Character.
7147106
Would you prefer the
honestsnarky response or the tactful response?Of course, either way my point still stands in regards to commenters here - none of us are in a position to prescribe changes in the definitions of English words. Unless and until we are, attempting to outright reverse a word's meaning is off the table.
Somehow, that really touched me... were I a pegasus working on the coast, that's something I would do.
Then the whole thing with Trevor and Cedric, another scene I found very easy to picture. I don't quite get where people can see racism here, but then I've got a very different perspective. Growing up in Germany in the 70s and 80s, it was a long time before I saw a black person for the first time. I felt intimidated although I know there was nothing to be intimidated about, he wasn't even looking at me.
Tall, black football players? Silver isn't racist here, she's not used to the sight and nervous, just think of how tiny she is in comparison. Again, we see her prey species reaction when she actually thinks about not being able to escape. Were she racist, she wouldn't hang out with them afterwards and describe it as a great experience.
I loved the whole scene... that hug was some powerful writing.
I am immensely pleased that this paragraph exists. Earth's pop culture could fill an entire four-year curriculum in most Equestrian schools. The opposite is probably also true.
Also, Silver continues to be a much better poet than she gives herself credit for, by which I mean nice job with the poem.
Come everypony, salute Admiral Biscuit for yet another fantastic chapter! <-- Definitely a salute, not a facehoof.
Lol Silver wants nothing less than a hot tub now that she has experienced one for herself. To bad Meghan didn't accept Silver's offer. Perhaps she is too self conscious, or it was simply that the tub was too small.
7148264
Are we going to actually see her again? I remember Silver saying she wanted to visit during a week-end and then it was never mentionned again.
7147354 Thank you! I've been wanting to tell those two how silly their argument is, but I couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
7146354 It was one guy, and I think it was an unfair and biased caricature of a Trump supporter. Even when bad shit happens, it's usually the (paid shills) Black Lives Matter supporters outside the rallies that cause the most trouble, then some secret service people being overzealous, and then small individual incidents of Trump supporters having a fight with a BLM activist.
Conrad's whimsical teaching at times reminds me of my collage Chemistry professor. I don't usually think of chemistry as whimsical but boy that guy was a character. Got me to take two semesters instead of just 1 purely because of his teaching.
7148481 Uh...I was just commenting on the events in the story.
You cannot resist the weaponized cuteness!
7147143
Correction made; thank you!
7148340
That may be so, but I suspect that it's hard to tell the difference between the two, especially in writing. For example, these two guys at work are often insulting and cursing at each other. In person, because of the intonation in their voices and body language, you can tell it's all in good fun (most of the time). But if I were to simply write out the words, one could easily believe they're in a serious argument and about to come to blows. If tribalism only amounts to simple rivalry, then something similar is happening with Silver Glow's journal entries, because that's being lost in translation. It's easy to read her as super racist sometimes if you don't have that head-canon in mind.
7148395
That blog you linked really cleared that right up. I Followed you so I'll see future blogs.
7148549 So was I. I was referring to an earlier chapter that has the Walgreens incident with the random specist guy with the "Make America Great Again" pin ranting at Silver for just being a pegasus in the US. That part ticked me off a bit since it seemed like a throw away stereotype and just there to have an antagonist. I was more interested in Silver, but that part did feel a bit forced to me.
I think having more interpersonal drama with her friends, roommate, or boyfriend would be more realistic and entertaining since she doesn't seem like she's going to have problems with being a pegasus in college.
7148549
7148688
There's a large difference between the supporters of a person superimposing their own values onto a candidate, and the candidates actual public rhetoric and ideology, and a candidate's personal thoughts on the matter.
Trump, in my opinion, doesn't care about immigrants, but being a "master dealmaker" clued him into an opportunity to appeal to xenophobes. The Republican establishment knows that it would be long-term electoral suicide to do that, but Trump, being an outsider, cares very little about the future of the party beyond this election. Thus, an appeal to insular xenophobes.
A reaction to Silver like she received in the supermarket would happen eventually; a story set in contemporary America would feel fake if it didn't use the contemporary language of xenophobic thought. That dude being a loud and proud Trump supporter isn't an authorial tract on Trump's policies, it's just verisimilitude.
7146467 Not just the actual unicorn, Silver's going to realize the entire movie is about the human version of unicorns. I bet she sympathizes with the Dursleys.
Her mention of herds is quite interesting and raises a question of what a herd actually is in this context. Does silver consider her friends at school her herd? Is Alric? Is her room mate? How close do you have to be to be considered herd mates?
Was she in a herd in Equestria and who did it consist of, she's mentioned her family quite a bit so they would be likely but she's not mentioned all that many friends so was her herd only her family?
7145350
Celestia & Luna DID steal 2 important jobs from Unicorns: The raising & lowering of the Sun & Moon.
Pegasi have Magic and stuff with weather, but as far as I know, they never continued to have a fancy written language like the unicorns.
-When she spied a beautiful sad-eyed
Grey and white pony.
That line really got my attention. It's the line that made me really wonder about Abigail's motivations for wanting the pony.
derpicdn.net/img/2015/1/15/807017/large.png
7149198
I see it differently. In my mind, Celestia and Luna are more like Atlas, taking on the great burden of moving the sun and moon, so the unicorns can do other useful things with their magic.
I think it's perfectly valid to speculate that the unicorns may have in fact created Lulu and Celly, based on the revelation from 'the Ceystalling' that Princess Flurry Heart is the first alicorn ever to be born, instead of being made.
In the case that Celly and Lulu were created by the unicorns, the unicorns may have desired to free themselves from a daily burden that was holding them back.
7148512
They are Pre Socratic philosophers and their ideas are weird. Thales believed everything is made out of water, while Parmenides believed that the universe is completely static and unchanging, all movement and change are completely illusory.
7149227
Actually, what they said was
Lulu and Celly may still have been born alicorns as it could have been before or outside of Equestria and they wouldn't remember it and thus wouldn't understand it.
That's not to say your headcanon isn't plausible or interesting though