[A Poem for a Monday] The Summer Day

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The Summer Day (Mary Oliver)

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

How do I love me. Let me count the ways.

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As previously mentioned, I've been taking a Social Psychology class on Coursera.  It's fascinating, especially how much we love ourselves.

In fact, we exhibit a thing called "implicit egotism," which means we like what we associate with ourselves.  And, it's more than just liking people that went to the same college or are from the same home town...

Here's some crazy examples of implicit egotism:

• We are more likely to marry someone with the same initials or similar sounding names
• Men named "Jack" are 2.2x more likely to live in Jacksonville
• Men named "Phillip" are 10.4x more likely to live in Philadelphia
• Dentists are 2x more likely to be named Dennis & 2.5x more likely to be named Denise
• When shown 2 self-portraits (the actual picture & the mirror version), most prefer the mirror version.  For other women, we prefer the actual picture.

Isn't that wild?