In times of trouble
Or anxiety
I reach for Earth
From which I came
And which sustains me
Where resides peace
In times of trouble
Or anxiety
I reach for Earth
From which I came
And which sustains me
Where resides peace
The master told her students
This is the path to enlightenment
“But it is so straight”, one replied
True, said the master
“I expected the path to be difficult!”
The straight path is difficult
“How can it be?
There are no mountain passes to find!
No intersections or forks to choose from!
No sharp curves to negotiate!”
Many students nodded their agreement
The master shook her head
The straight path is difficult because
You want to climb mountains
You expect there to be many paths to choose from
You believe there should be sharp changes in direction
One student had sat quietly through all this
Listening while looking straight down the long path
As far as she could see
Finally, she spoke
“Walking the straight path is impossible
For one who seeks insight
From every roadside attraction”
The master smiled
I am your student!
To understand this
Is to master life
To master life
One must master death
Also, my apologies for the lateness of this week’s challenge. I had to work today, and then this much prose takes much longer to pen than a poem. 😉
The situational awareness of a Series 25 is pretty hard for a mere human to wrap their head around. While these battle droids are equipped with a pair of excellent optical sensors, positioned to replicate the appearance of a predator’s stereo vision, it is their internal sensors which provide the bulk of their operational data. These include radar (both atmospheric and ground-penetrating), with full sonic and electro-magnetic spectrum arrays. Their entire body acts as an antenna, collecting sensory data in a sphere up to a one kilometer radius. The Quantum Processing Unit parses and analyzes this data in real-time, determining all relevant threats in the sensory sphere and developing ongoing action plans for eliminating them.
I talked with a droid designer once who said there was really no way of putting an upper-limit on how fast a 25 can assess and respond to every situational detail of a battle in terms I could understand. “But,” she said, “if you can imagine beating Bobby Fisher at chess one hundred million times in a nanosecond while simultaneously playing every instrument for a full orchestra’s rendition of the William Tell Overture, you’ll have an inkling.”
Circle
Unbroken
The round
Complete
Then round
And round
And round
Again
Until I step
Upon a path
Some may say
Leads me astray
Perhaps enlightenment
is the condition
when all four
flow together as one
And the tunnel
Is only the sum of my fears
Confining me
Gather here in peace
Quieting your mind
Listen for my voice
The wisdom of the ancients