I think the point is not that you should not be kind to random people you meet who you would have no other reason to be kind to because they might be an angel in disguise or whatever; I think it is that you should be kind to random people because you know they are an angel in disguise. Each and every one of them. No matter how unlikely. And true, one of them could be an angel of destruction. But still. That's the problem with that story that people point out -- why did the person treat the unexpected visitors so nicely? There was something special? Of course. That's the point. Keep doing that. It's the knowledge to see the random strangers for the angels they are, and treat them accordingly, that's needed. Of course they saw that the visitors were angels. Of course.

I'm ambivalent about the concept of panhandling. I know there are people who depend on it to survive. I know there are also people who misrepresent themselves and then go and do non-survival-oriented things. Either way, it hurts to see someone so very down on their luck. One thing I don't feel ambivalent about is offering apples to people who look like they're very hungry and could use some food that isn't fast or junk. Apples are good. I like it when I have apples to share.


In parts of the universe that are not the Bujold e-mail list, "pizza call" does not mean stop the fight. (YouTube 4/16/2007 Fenway Park.)


Went on a field trip with work. Saw the Body Worlds 3 exhibit at the Arizona Science Center. It was amazing. There was this pervasive hush at the beginning of it, and that continued for much of it. After the halfway mark, people started mingling and discussing and backtracking more, but there is this sense of awe at the contributions of all these people to this thing. I think I'm fortunate in that my empathy did not kick in.

The thing that I think amazed me most, and in the good, delighted way -- most museum things or art things that have items of even mildly approaching such delicacy and wonder have everything glassed in and tucked out of harm's way. The things like the examples of organs and bones were in glass boxes, yes, with labels and explanations. But the sculptured bodies were right there in the open, at human-level. There was no need to box them off. No one touched a thing. There was rapt, close, even reverent, examination -- but people had their hands at their sides, behind their backs, to their hearts.

Pizza! Score! Management got dinner for the supervisors seeing as how it was not very many of us doing a whole lot.