There you go - I was just checking in to make sure I hadn’t misspoke, or misrepresented the day/time - and lo, I did.
To be be perfectly clear: Tuesday 4, September, 2018, @ high noon (12:00) MST.
I promise this - it will be interesting for curious minds.
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2:00 p. m Eastern Time, correct? I took off work to make this gig. I hope that I have the time right. 
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Yes, that is correct.
Just read through this topic. What an extraordinary exchange, above, between @johnnydavis54 and @KPr2204. What an honor to read your real stories and reflections—I would say your words are perfect enough.
The Orwell essay is also excellent, and sensible. Looking forward to the conversation. Thanks again for setting up the topic and the seed questions, Mr. J.
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Perhaps, “Perfect Words” are found in everyone’s story. Our words become perfected when we become willing to share our story.
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Like our session this evening. Thanks again, Mark, for setting this up.
Though we shared favorite books, we didn’t get to share some “perfect words” … which – just to repeat, I don’t think there are – so, let me refer to them as a masterful turn of phrase. I have three:
-
“And so it goes.”
(Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5; but it is only used when someone in the narrative dies. The context is important.) -
“… the latter part of his life when age shall have blunted the zest of his earthly nature …”
(Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p 701; which I found to have a wonderful conglomeration of notions phrased in an almost Victorian (though by then I suppose it is actually Georgian) manner.) -
“It looks like freedom / but it feels like death / but it’s something in-between / I guess.”
(Leonard Cohen, “Closing Time”; for no other reason than it caught my ear.)
Just for yucks.
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TBC … for sure. thanks to everyone for tuning in. F --ing time. HST said the true enemy is the face on the clock. So true … if only we had more time to discuss - I could blow your mind …
Cheers
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And what about a much older but similar sounding expression, Ed : “And so to bed.” From one of my favourite “diarists”, Samuel Pepys!
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Though I’m guessing he got back up again? 
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Every day! He worked for the treasury department in 17th century London…
From Lisa Randall’s book Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs relevant to our discussion - " To account for all that extra matter, Zwicky proposed the existence of what he named dunkle Materie, which is German for dark matter and sounds either more ominous or sillier depending on how you pronounce it."
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The pronunciation you’re looking for (which will have varying degrees of silliness, depending on the ears doing the listening) is
DOON-kleh mah-TAIR-ee-eh
Does that help?
(Funny how so many “really important” ideas show up in German, eh? You know, Weltschmerz, dunkle Materie, Schadenfreude, Angst, Gestalt, Kindergarten, Sauerkraut …)
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Indeed, & why I’m so glad you’re here, especially for the live cafe sessions!
To my central point: I’m working on the 5th, 6th (I’ve lost count) re-write of my “soon” to be published book, Election 2016: The Great Divide, the Great Debate , and each time I change a word–it’s like flicking a figure of a mobile hanging over a baby’s crib - every figure moves. And this could go on forever! At some point it has to stop!
Think, write, rethink, write, rethink, write …
The baby doesn’t care … only cares that when she/he yells - you come running.
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Although I was rather forceful in our CCafe session that engineers know they aren’t striving for perfection, I’m going to 'fess up and say that I overstated the case … a bit. (It’s a weakness, I know, but I’m working on it, honestly. 
)
Everybody else involved in those projects knew that a design was finished when you went in and broke the engineers’ pencils. Left up to them, it would never end.
Engineers only had pencils. You’ve got fingers involved. Ouch! I’d say ditch the mobile.
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And then the baby might fuss, distracting you from your work, i.e. saving the world. And then you kill the baby? ( I find your objections mild.) “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” … where does that come from? Anybody? Me and “Psych-girl” explore these thoughts as money is exchanged - from my pocket to hers, and we both exhibit a tight-lipped smile, and negotiate.
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It didn’t come up the other day, but the most useful book on writing I’ve read was The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. He talks about “resistance” as the opposing force (within us, but it could also appear externally) that we must overcome to accomplish the creative act.
It’s very simple, the way he tells it. Anything we want to do that requires us to become greater than or go beyond ourselves, elicits resistance. Only by facing and overcoming our resistance to change on a regular basis, as a daily discipline and practice, can we actually enter the creative flow that produces worthwhile writing…or worthwhile anything. Good stuff.
Maybe you should write a blog post about the topic, Mark…for all the WWsWWW out there.
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I’ll check it out … resistance is common (esp. w/r/t me and my psych-girl) Is it her? me? …
I’m pretty sure it’s you. She’s just doing her job…
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Seriously, Oprah? Errg (= are you kidding me?) Psych-girl said (last visit) that I was exhibiting rigid/fixed behavior, to which I responded: Are you implying I’m “pig-headed, arrogant, and narcissistic?” … as I smiled and paid her her for expert opinion, gladly, recalling that I’d heard that before, from others far less educated and qualified. And then, walking to my car, asked myself: What are you doing, Mark? And I smiled, drove home, took a shot of whiskey, and opened up Zoom so as to host this conversation. … wtf?