Home to my mother’s door. Push back the lock,
She will not open it___no use to knock.
A weight is on my breast; oh! never yet
Daughter at mother’s door such welcome met!No kiss upon my lips; no word, no sound,
No loving arms reach out to clasp me round,
I cross the threshold to a solemn room,
Peopled with shadows, silent as the tomb.The heavy air is chill___no fire, no light;
Only pale sunshine, streaming thin and white
Through the bare panes upon the naked floor.
I shrink and shiver___do not shut the door!Tread lightly on the creaking boards, speak low;
Start not the hollow echoes; well I know
They sleep in every corner. Do not call,
Lest they should answer loudly, one and all.Her voice is still. ‘Twas here I heard it last___
Here by the door. The tears fell thick and fast
From both our eyes; to-day the drops run o’er
From only mine; and she___she weeps no more.This was her bedroom; it was here, you say,
She laid in silence all that summer day.
With roses (how she loved them!) at her head,
Wreathed on the wall and strewn upon her bed.Now she lies yonder, and a somber pall
The dead leaves weave above her as they fall;
The rains that beat, the autmn winds that blow,
Are making ready shrouds of snow.Whatever covers her she still sleeps well
But oh! these silent rooms; I can not tell
Why their cold emptiness should move me so;
I can not bear it longer___let us go.
Category Archives: Poetry
Everyday Normal Guy
by Jon Lajoie
Psychology of Cons
Psychology Today, as discussed by Bruce, provides insight into the mind of cons and the practice of fraud:
My laboratory studies of college students have shown that two percent of them are “unconditional nonreciprocators.” That’s a mouthful! This means that when they are trusted they don’t return money to person who trusted them (these experiments are described in my post on neuroeconomics). What do we really call these people in my lab? Bastards. Yup, not folks that you would want to have a cup of coffee with. These people are deceptive, don’t stay in relationships long, and enjoy taking advantage of others. Psychologically, they resemble sociopaths. Bastards are dangerous because they have learned how to simulate trustworthiness. My research has demonstrated that they have highly dysregulated THOMASes [The Human Oxytocin Mediated Attachment System].
The author emphasizes that two percent is not bad since that means a large majority of people therefore are not bastards. He also turns to literature for historic prose on living with fraud:
Russian playwright Anton Chekov said “You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.” I’d say that’s about right-just watch for the occasional con.
Occasional is higher than two percent, seems to me. What percentage would Chekov have guessed? Does the percentage go up in later age groups?
A 2002 paper called Trust among strangers is based on a game that simulates the opportunity for reciprocation and charts the probabilities.
Good Morning Washington DC
The AFP’s Boryana Katsarova captures the look of more than a 1,000 words:
Argo often has this look.