reality rules

I know a lot of us have heard about Mark Twain’s story about how becoming a riverboat pilot meant he couldn’t see the beauty of the river anymore.

But I feel the exact opposite. I find that knowing how something is done increases my appreciation for its beauty. I can be impressed by subtleties the uninitiated wouldn’t notice.

An easy example is dressage (which I used to do at the most rudimentary, crappy level). Someone who doesn’t know what they're looking at would have to watch a show-stopping Olympic-level performance, complete with music, to be impressed. Whereas an aficionado can get the wows from just watching a horse reach its neck down a certain way as it walks.

So I like knowing how stuff is done. Not to mention that unless I do— at least a little— I feel weird about writing it.

Oh, and the picture for this post? That’s what I got when I typed “Mark Twain riding a dressage horse on a riverboat” into DreamStudio AI. The new world, ’tis a weird place!