intentions Q Good intentions are almost always worth lots. 080112 ... ovenbird I do a lot of writing from my phone so when I discovered swipe keyboards for mobile devices it was a revelation. The uptick in efficiency is similar to switching from printing to cursive. In case you’re a dinosaur like me and do not know what a swipe keyboard is, it allows you to type without having to lift your finger to peck out each individual letter. You can leave your finger down and swipe through every letter in the word you want and the algorithms guess at your textual intentions. It works surprisingly well, but it isn’t perfect because you inevitably swipe through a bunch of letters you don’t need and sometimes the word that comes out is mind bogglingly off base. And so, last night, when I was swiping through the letters meant to build the word “paragraph” what came out was “Ouagadougou.” I wasn’t even sure this was a real word, but it turns out it’s the capital of Burkina Faso. I have never been to Burkina Faso. I did not know the capital of Burkina Faso. I have never seen the name of the capital of Burkina Faso in print, or heard it spoken, or otherwise had any knowledge of its existence, so I was left very confused as to how my phone thought that was what I meant. All of which left me thinking about intentions and how hard they are to read. Once, in the mountains, I found myself in the middle of the annual Western Toad migration. The most adorable tiny toads, no bigger than the tip of my index finger, leapt in huge numbers across the gravel path I was walking on. I got down on the ground to see them better. I put out my hand hoping one would hop on board so I could see the perfection of its minuscule body up close. But they scattered, terrified, and who could blame them? I was a giant, clumsy, and threatening. One wrong step could easily crush the life out of such a small being. My intention was “friend” but the frogs saw “death” and there was no way to meet in the middle, no way to prove my benevolence, and I ached from knowing that, even with the best of intentions, to some I will always be a monster. 250915 what's it to you? who go blather from