While Reformation clothes are more sustainable than most stuff out there, they also happen to be pretty cute, if we may say so ourselves

The Reformation

A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE REFORMATION OF THE LATIN CHURCH THE REFORMATION OF THE LATIN CHURCH The Latin Church itself was enormously affected by this mental rebirth. It was dismembered; and even the portion that survived was extensively renewed. We have told how nearly the church came to the autocratic leadership of all Christendom in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and how in the fourteenth and fifteenth its power over men’s minds and affairs declined. We have described how popular religious enthusiasm which had in earlier ages been its support and power was turned against it by its pride, persecutions and centralization, and how the insidious scepticism of Frederick II bore fruit in a growing insubordination of the princes. The Great Schism had reduced its religious and political prestige to negligible proportions. The forces of insurrection struck it now from both sides. The teachings of the Englishman Wycliffe spread widely throughout Europe. In 1398 a learned Czech, John Huss, delivered a series of lectures upon Wycliffe’s teachings in the university of Prague. This teaching spread rapidly beyond the educated class and aroused great popular enthusiasm. In 1414-18 a Council of the whole church was held at Constance to settle the Great Schism. Huss was invited to this Council under promise of a safe conduct from the emperor, seized, put on trial for heresy and burnt alive (1415). So far from tranquillizing the Bohemian people, this led to an insurrection of the Hussites in that country, the first of a series of religious wars that inaugurated the break-up of Latin Christendom. Against this insurrection Pope Martin V, the Pope specially elected at Constance as the head of a reunited Christendom, preached a Crusade. Five Crusades in all were launched upon this sturdy little people and all of them failed. All the unemployed ruffianism of Europe was turned upon Bohemia in the fifteenth century, just as in the thirteenth it had been turned upon the Waldenses. But the Bohemian Czechs, unlike the Waldenses, believed in armed resistance. The Bohemian Crusade dissolved and streamed away from the battlefield at the sound of the Hussites’ waggons and the distant chanting of their troops; it did not even wait to fight (battle of Domazlice, 1431). In 1436 an agreement was patched up with the Hussites by a new Council of the church at Basle in which many of the special objections to Latin practice were conceded. PORTRAIT OF LUTHER (From an early German engraving in the British Museum) In the fifteenth century a great pestilence had produced much social disorganization throughout Europe. There had been extreme misery and discontent among the common people, and peasant risings against the landlords and the wealthy in England and France. After the Hussite Wars these peasant insurrections increased in gravity in Germany and took on a religious character. Printing came in as an influence upon this development. By the middle of the fifteenth century there were printers at work with movable type in Holland and the Rhineland. The art spread to Italy and England, where Caxton was printing in Westminster in 1477. The immediate consequence was a great increase and distribution of Bibles, and greatly increased facilities for widespread popular controversies. The European world became a world of readers, to an extent that had never happened to any community in the past. And this sudden irrigation of the general mind with clearer ideas and more accessible information occurred just at a time when the church was confused and divided and not in a position to defend itself effectively, and when many princes were looking for means to weaken its hold upon the vast wealth it claimed in their dominions. In Germany the attack upon the church gathered round the personality of an ex-monk, Martin Luther (1483-1546), who appeared in Wittenberg in 1517 offering disputations against various orthodox doctrines and practices. At first he disputed in Latin in the fashion of the Schoolmen. Then he took up the new weapon of the printed word and scattered his views far and wide in German addressed to the ordinary people. An attempt was made to suppress him as Huss had been suppressed, but the printing press had changed conditions and he had too many open and secret friends among the German princes for this fate to overtake him. For now in this age of multiplying ideas and weakened faith there were many rulers who saw their advantage in breaking the religious ties between their people and Rome. They sought to make themselves in person the heads of a more nationalized religion. England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, North Germany and Bohemia, one after another, separated themselves from the Roman Communion. They have remained separated ever since. A MAJOLICA DISH PAINED IN COLOURS An allegory of the Church triumphant over heretics and infidels. Italian (Urbino), dated 1543 (In the Victoria and Albert Museum) The various princes concerned cared very little for the moral and intellectual freedom of their subjects. They used the religious doubts and insurgence of their peoples to strengthen them against Rome, but they tried to keep a grip upon the popular movement as soon as that rupture was achieved and a national church set up under the control of the crown. But there has always been a curious vitality in the teaching of Jesus, a direct appeal to righteousness and a man’s self-respect over every loyalty and every subordination, lay or ecclesiastical. None of these princely churches broke off without also breaking off a number of fragmentary sects that would admit the intervention of neither prince nor Pope between a man and his God. In England and Scotland, for example, there was a number of sects who now held firmly to the Bible as their one guide in life and belief. They refused the disciplines of a state church. In England these dissentients were the Non- conformists, who played a very large part in the polities of that country in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In England they carried their objection to a princely head to the church so far as to decapitate King Charles I (1649), and for eleven prosperous years England was a republic under Non- conformist rule. The breaking away of this large section of Northern Europe from Latin Christendom is what is generally spoken of as the Reformation. But the shock and stress of these losses produced changes perhaps as profound in the Roman Church itself. The church was reorganized and a new spirit came into its life. One of the dominant figures in this revival was a young Spanish soldier, Inigo Lopez de Recalde, better known to the world as St. Ignatius of Loyola. After some romantic beginnings he became a priest (1538) and was permitted to found the Society of Jesus, a direct attempt to bring the generous and chivalrous traditions of military discipline into the service of religion. This Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, became one of the greatest teaching and missionary societies the world has ever seen. It carried Christianity to India, China and America. It arrested the rapid disintegration of the Roman Church. It raised the standard of education throughout the whole Catholic world; it raised the level of Catholic intelligence and quickened the Catholic conscience everywhere; it stimulated Protestant Europe to competitive educational efforts. The vigorous and aggressive Roman Catholic Church we know to-day is largely the product of this Jesuit revival About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2011). A Short History of the World. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

THE REFORMATION OF THE LATIN CHURCH

By Dan Keene, Chief Business Officer of Portal Cross-chain interoperability is the key to achieving the mass adoption of blockchain technology in any sector. Interoperability enables blockchain networks and protocols to , making it easier for everyday users to engage with blockchain technology. The rise of blockchain technology has led to the development of new blockchain networks that tackle specific niches within certain industries, each blockchain having specialized functions based on its purpose. communicate with each other However, there is no one perfect solution that will be able to meet all of the needs associated with blockchain technology all at once. Therefore, as more organizations become aware of both the challenges and possibilities, the interconnection of unique blockchains is becoming increasingly necessary. Blockchain interoperability refers to a wide variety of methods that enable many blockchains to communicate, share digital assets and data, and work together more effectively. This makes it possible for one blockchain network to share its economic activity with another. For example, interoperability allows transmitting data and assets across different blockchain networks via decentralized cross-chain bridges. One main consequence of this is , the pooling of small, inaccessible pockets of users and liquidity into a single, easy-to-access market. At Portal, we see this is a major step towards bringing mainstream audiences into Web3. More than that, our innovative tech stack, built with LayerZero, allows this interoperability to occur via infrastructure that is . By ensuring user peace of mind and ease of use, we maximize our chances of uptake in blockchain technology. defragmentation trustless the chances of mainstream adoption are significantly smaller unless interoperability issues begin to be resolved. Current processes like bridging or swapping tokens between chains entail significant user frictions; onboarding into Web3 is, at present, clunky and intimidating to prospective users, particularly when sending digital assets between networks. The bottom line: Let’s look at Gaming. Like many established Web2 industries at scale, gaming is currently largely centralized, with all related data stored on a server that is fully controlled by the game administrators. This means that players don’t have real ownership of their accounts and items, and centralized servers present many limitations and vulnerabilities. However, nascent blockchain technology can eliminate or mitigate most of these problems by enabling players to have permanent ownership and full control over their in-game assets. But what happens when players want to move their assets from one chain’s ecosystem to the next? Typically, this is done through clunky “bridging” or “swapping” processes, but these are the opposite: easy and user-friendly. These mechanisms are a world apart from contemporary mainstream payment solutions found in the likes of e-commerce and app stores. Next-gen Web3 solutions like the Portal Wallet allow users to seamlessly and securely move assets (such as currencies, in-game items, skins, and the like) between dApps on different blockchains, boosting trust and reducing friction. Only by solving these very practical considerations can we begin to talk about blockchain and Web3 gaming in terms of utility and possibility rather than processes and pain points. Blockchain interoperability can enable the creation of a unified gaming ecosystem useable by all. Portal is building one such ecosystem, an all-encompassing umbrella where value and users flow easily between walled gardens. The Portal Wallet’s seamless UX makes it the go-to entry point for prospective Web3 gamers, whilst the Portal Platform and Network will leverage world-class representation across entertainment to accelerate adoption by Web2 and 3 games alike. Blockchain-based games allow players to have full control over their in-game assets, which are represented by unique, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These assets may include in-game cards, skins, equipment, and characters, and they can all be linked to blockchain tokens, which are maintained by a decentralized network. More broadly, blockchain’s ability to transparently record information and transfer assets allows users to capture a portion of the economic value created by gaming. Portal’s extensive entertainment and streaming network allows it to connect games and gamers, with native token $Portal efficiently flowing between all parties. Blockchain interoperability can also enable the creation of decentralized marketplaces, which can be used to trade in-game assets. This will allow for the creation of a more transparent and fair gaming economy, where players can trade their assets without the need for intermediaries, and most importantly, enable the creation of cross-game assets for , creating a much more immersive, enriched gaming experience that paves the way toward a fully realized industry. use across different games What else might then be possible? Once blockchain interoperability happens at scale, it will enable a wide range of products and services outside of gaming. At Portal, we’re constantly keeping an eye on possibilities not just in our own sector, but more broadly. The potential use cases that could emerge are, frankly, myriad, but some great examples are: Interoperability can enable the creation of a unified supply chain ecosystem that can be used by everyone. 1. Supply Chain Management: . This will allow for the seamless transfer of goods and services across different supply chains, making it easier for businesses to track their products and services from start to finish Imagine the reformation of a unified healthcare ecosystem that can be used by everyone. 2. Healthcare: . This will allow for the seamless transfer of medical records and other health-related data across different healthcare providers, making it easier for patients to access their medical records and receive better care Interoperability paves the way for a unified and democratized real estate ecosystem where it’s possible to . 3. Real Estate: seamlessly transfer property titles and other real estate-related data across different real estate providers, making it easier for people to buy and sell properties I’m ready for a world where you can transfer energy credits and other energy-related data across different energy providers, making it easier for people to access renewable energy sources and reduce their carbon footprint. 4. Energy: It’s clear that we stand at the precipice of mass adoption for the industry. Once interoperability is the order of the day, I believe we won’t say things like “Web3” anymore. We’ll just do our business and build great tech using the best infrastructure available, leaving the user to enjoy novel products and experiences as they please. Imagine that! ### About Dan Keene With a career grounded in traditional finance, Dan has 10+ years at the forefront of consumer tech. Named in Forbes’ 30U30 Europe list for 2021, he has spent the majority of his time founding, scaling, and selling companies across multiple sectors. Highlights include scaling one company to Unicorn status and raising $650m in investment for another; investors included the likes of Goldman Sachs and Softbank. Dan has been full-time in Web3 for the last 3 years and is bullish on the disruptive force that blockchain and digital assets can bring to all industries, particularly gaming. About Portal is the universal gaming ecosystem powered by $Portal. Through market-leading tech products and a world-class network, Portal is bringing blockchain gaming to mainstream audiences. It’s the crucial first step in their mission: to onboard the first billion gamers into Web3. The Portal Ecosystem is composed of multiple interconnected elements, each providing a unique value add for users: the universal gaming coin, Portal Platform, Wallet, and Network. With 180+ games integrated at launch, Portal is set to be the world’s access point to Web3 gaming. Portal Follow on X (Twitter) at https://twitter.com/Portalcoin Claim Portal Rewards via__ __ CrystalDash

Crosschain Interoperability: Soon, We Won’t Say “Web3”

Imagine a hunter-gatherer exclaiming he’s taking his life into his own hands and is now going to become a solo hunter. They had a drought, so he commits to visualizing only good weather next season because, you know, his thoughts create reality. has become a popular pursuit in contemporary society, focusing on personal growth, self-improvement, and achieving one’s I will go as far as to say that it’s almost a moral imperative to be into personal development. At the very least, signal you’re doing so. Self-development full potential. Read any self-development or business mindset article, and you will find phrases such as: Unlock your full potential and lead a more fulfilling life. God helps those who help themselves. The instant you accept responsibility for everything in your life, you acquire the power to change it. And my personal favorite: I’M A SELF-MADE [fill in the gap] Sorry to break it to you, Twitter bros, but you’re not self-made. I am no fan of using the word privilege because I think it’s overused, but god damn, this is such a privileged language I cannot bear reading it anymore. The message of self-improvement boils down to personal responsibility: Your life isn’t going well? It’s on you. You’re overweight? It’s your choice, obviously. You don’t have a six-figure business online? It means you’re complacent. Nothing else can or will be questioned if your philosophy is hyper-individualised. In this perspective, the individual is at the center and forefront of everything. This got me thinking: where did these ideas originate from? Protestant Reformation, apparently. Yes, our ‘rational’ society, which doesn’t buy into the man-in-the-sky scenario, preaches the ideas stemming from the 16th-century Western Christian movement. Quick Pre-reformation History Before the Reformation, the seeds of self-development can be traced to the humanist movement, which emphasized education, critical thinking, and personal achievement. The emphasis on personal growth and self-fulfillment continued to evolve within the context of the Reformation. As a result, the idea of self-development began to merge with the theological and philosophical discussions of the time. Individuals not only sought spiritual salvation but also recognized the importance of personal growth, education, and self-improvement as a means to enhance their lives on Earth. The Roots of the Protestant Work Ethic The Protestant Reformation, led by figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin in the 16th century, brought about a significant shift in religious thought and practice. One of the key tenets of Protestantism was the emphasis on individual faith and personal responsibility for salvation. Unlike the Catholic Church, which promoted salvation through sacraments and rituals, Protestantism urged believers to take control of their own spiritual destinies through personal faith in God. This shift from intermediaries in religious practice laid the groundwork for the concept of individual empowerment and autonomy. This was the essence of the Protestant work ethic. Central to it was the belief that work and worldly success were signs of God’s favor and one’s own salvation. In essence, hard work and prosperity were seen as evidence of a virtuous life. The Self-Development Industry: Personal Growth as a Virtue Fast forward to the modern era, the idea of individual empowerment is everywhere. The self-help industry, anything from books, seminars, courses, and motivational speakers, is all geared toward helping individuals achieve ‘their best’. At its core, self-development encourages people to take control of their lives, set ambitious goals, and continuously improve themselves. One of the main tenets of this industry is the emphasis on personal responsibility and hard work. Just as Protestantism asserted that one’s faith and salvation were personal responsibilities, self-development teaches that: Individual success is a matter of personal effort and determination. The pursuit of self-improvement and the achievement of goals are often framed as virtuous endeavors, mirroring the Protestant belief that hard work and prosperity are signs of divine favor. A similar sentiment is around today - implicitly, successful people are viewed as better and more virtuous because of everything they achieved. New Age Thought and Its Connection Moving forward in history, we arrive at the phenomenon known as New Age thought. New Age thought encompasses a wide range of spiritual and esoteric beliefs, holistic healing practices, and a strong focus on personal transformation. If you ever heard about manifestation and the Universe having your back, this is New Age speak. It moved away from the belief in God and instead created a curious mix of both God and self-responsibility. You’re the sole creator of your world and reality, you’re a powerful manifestor and everything you want CAN be achieved if you just want it bad enough. That means clearing out your limiting beliefs, stepping out of your comfort zone, raising your energy, and, most importantly, buying whoever’s telling you this, of course. In cases where you don’t get what you want, it means the Universe has a better plan for ya. So, on the one hand, your life is a direct reflection of how hard you work on yourself, and on the other hand, the Universe (God) is still there to catch you when you fall. A convenient belief if you ask me. But completely disregards at least a thousand other variables. The New Age movement also shares some common themes with Protestantism, particularly in the realms of individual exploration and the quest for personal meaning. Both movements encourage individuals to look within themselves for answers and to seek spiritual fulfillment on a personal level. While the language and practices may differ, the underlying emphasis on individual empowerment and the pursuit of a higher purpose aligns with Protestant ideals. Except now we have to navigate a terrain full of wacky, eccentric, narcissistic, self-involved online coaches. Modern Capitalism: The Fruit of Hard Work Although it seems unrelated, capitalism is highly intertwined with the personal development industry, too. The sort of language people who’re selling you courses (to help you sell courses to others) use is 6-figures this, 5-figures that, this student of mine quit their 9–5 and began making millions $ online, etc. We see the idea of success and ‘making it on your own’ being sold as a virtue. Just like in Protestantism, in capitalism, the system rewards those who work hard, take risks, and innovate, providing opportunities for individuals to amass wealth and achieve success. The idea is that success in the material world is a direct reflection of what a good (wo)man you are. As in, Your ‘goodness’ is directly correlated with what you achieved. This attitude played a pivotal role in shaping the economic landscape of countries with strong Protestant traditions, such as the United States and many European nations. In these societies, the pursuit of economic success was often seen as a reflection of one’s dedication, discipline, and moral character — values deeply rooted in Protestantism. But Rima, What’s Wrong With Taking Responsibility For Your Life? This a difficult one personally because a) I used to be a coach. b) I used to believe this to my core. c) There’s a part of me that still believes it, and the amount of times I catch myself thinking something’s wrong with me “when I don’t take responsibility” is too much. In some sense, there’s nothing wrong with this statement. It does give you a sense of autonomy over your life. This chaotic, ever-changing existence of ours feels more graspable if you can take responsibility for how you view it, right? But for me, this has manifested as: and anxiety when I feel like I don’t (spoiler alert: I don’t have control most of the time, even of myself. I can’t even control what thoughts and emotions arise, but that’s a topic for another article). A delusional sense of having control in my life by all the different ways and courses promising to teach me ‘the ultimate way to self-responsibility.’ Overwhelmed — for being a person. For having reactions and emotions, for wanting to eat a cake when “I shouldn’t,” and for refusing to use icky, manipulative sales tactics I discuss in this article. Have you ever noticed the manipulative AF language of the “self-made” folks online? If you pay for the course and you don’t start making five figures, it’s because something’s wrong with YOU. Shame and guilt You didn’t put in the work, clear your shadows, or manifest well enough. Another “fun” fact is that I stayed in an abusive relationship longer than I should have (2 years longer, lol) because I had an array of spiritual beliefs related to karma and other stuff that essentially said I must have brought this onto myself. But I derail. The mindset of the personal development industry is essentially: Everything is on you. So Who’s Responsible, Really? Placing the sole responsibility on one individual is nonsense. It completely disregards one’s country of origin (how many manifestations coaches do you know from the slums of Africa vs. white girls in their abundance hats indoors?), family, mental health issues, neurodivergence (the world is most suited for neurotypical folks let’s admit), access to education and opportunity, etc. I also believe this hyper-individualized philosophy is what created the loneliness epidemic and further divide between classes. If you’ve made tons of money online and someone didn’t, it’s easier to believe that hard work was the determining factor — other people to be ‘lazy.’ your chose The belief of they didn’t want it hard enough they didn’t try hard enough they didn’t put in the work is a lazy way of explaining why you made it. I believe that all those ‘self-made’ people have put in the work. I do. But there’s no fucking recognition that, for one, out of many privileges was that they spoke English — so they had access to this insane amount of info online and access to an English-speaking audience. Living with a belief that everything is on you is stressful. It’s isolating. It’s ridiculous. When I see successful people online saying how taking responsibility for their lives got them there, I panic. Because I have been doing personal growth (since I was 12, mind you), I have been putting in the work, doing therapy, coaching, investing in courses, books, seminars, ‘clearing my blocks’ etc. And I’m currently not making five figures a month online. I couldn’t say I’m not trying hard enough either 😂 Conclusion The self-development industry and modern capitalism have strong ties to the values and principles of the Protestant work ethic. The emphasis on personal responsibility, hard work, and the pursuit of success can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation, where these values were foundational to one’s spiritual salvation. While the influence of Protestantism has evolved over the centuries, its legacy persists in the current philosophy. But this philosophy further perpetuates inequality, contributes to self-esteem issues (if others made it, why can’t I — what’s wrong with me?), and distances us from other people, from communities. I don’t know what the answer is, really, but it has become glaringly obvious to me that the current self-development industry is a pyramid scheme. The truth is, the world is chaotic and complicated, and no one ever makes it on their own. P.S. This is something that I’ve been hanging my mind on recently. I say changing because it’s not made up. I think there’s a lot of nuance regarding this topic. I didn’t know why, one morning seven months ago, I woke up and decided to quit coaching, but now I do. I wanted to coach people and make 6-figures a month, but I couldn't get myself to use these sales tactics. So, I thought I was failing as a professional and quit. Being steeped in the belief that ‘everything is a reflection of my inner world,’ I thought I must have money blocks and was a bad coach. My intention with this article wasn’t to call out individual people but rather the industry as a whole. It has become so icky, so isolating, and so elitist. Maybe it’s always been that way. But the idea that a person working three jobs to put his kid through school hasn’t aligned their chakras to create reality makes me roll my eyes. I want to reclaim coaching as something accessible to everyone, not just successful online talking heads offering 6-figure a year ‘masterminds.’ Also published . here

The Origins of The Modern Self-Improvement Industry: Protestant Roots and Capitalist Fruits

Nimes: A Crucible of Convulsions - From Religious Rivalry to Martyrdom

The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . FLOWERS O’ MAY CHAPTER XII. FLOWERS O’ MAY Accordingly we went a-maying, following the lure of dancing winds to a certain westward sloping hill lying under the spirit-like blue of spring skies, feathered over with lisping young pines and firs, which cupped little hollows and corners where the sunshine got in and never got out again, but stayed there and grew mellow, coaxing dear things to bloom long before they would dream of waking up elsewhere. ‘Twas there we found our mayflowers, after faithful seeking. Mayflowers, you must know, never flaunt themselves; they must be sought as becomes them, and then they will yield up their treasures to the seeker—clusters of star-white and dawn-pink that have in them the very soul of all the springs that ever were, re-incarnated in something it seems gross to call perfume, so exquisite and spiritual is it. We wandered gaily over the hill, calling to each other with laughter and jest, getting parted and delightfully lost in that little pathless wilderness, and finding each other unexpectedly in nooks and dips and sunny silences, where the wind purred and gentled and went softly. When the sun began to hang low, sending great fan-like streamers of radiance up to the zenith, we foregathered in a tiny, sequestered valley, full of young green fern, lying in the shadow of a wooded hill. In it was a shallow pool—a glimmering green sheet of water on whose banks nymphs might dance as blithely as ever they did on Argive hill or in Cretan dale. There we sat and stripped the faded leaves and stems from our spoil, making up the blossoms into bouquets to fill our baskets with sweetness. The Story Girl twisted a spray of divinest pink in her brown curls, and told us an old legend of a beautiful Indian maiden who died of a broken heart when the first snows of winter were falling, because she believed her long-absent lover was false. But he came back in the spring time from his long captivity; and when he heard that she was dead he sought her grave to mourn her, and lo, under the dead leaves of the old year he found sweet sprays of a blossom never seen before, and knew that it was a message of love and remembrance from his dark-eyed sweet-heart. “Except in stories Indian girls are called squaws,” remarked practical Dan, tying his mayflowers together in one huge, solid, cabbage-like bunch. Not for Dan the bother of filling his basket with the loose sprays, mingled with feathery elephant’s-ears and trails of creeping spruce, as the rest of us, following the Story Girl’s example, did. Nor would he admit that ours looked any better than his. “I like things of one kind together. I don’t like them mixed,” he said. “You have no taste,” said Felicity. “Except in my mouth, best beloved,” responded Dan. “You do think you are so smart,” retorted Felicity, flushing with anger. “Don’t quarrel this lovely day,” implored Cecily. “Nobody’s quarrelling, Sis. I ain’t a bit mad. It’s Felicity. What on earth is that at the bottom of your basket, Cecily?” “It’s a History of the Reformation in France,” confessed poor Cecily, “by a man named D-a-u-b-i-g-n-y. I can’t pronounce it. I heard Mr. Marwood saying it was a book everyone ought to read, so I began it last Sunday. I brought it along today to read when I got tired picking flowers. I’d ever so much rather have brought Ester Reid. There’s so much in the history I can’t understand, and it is so dreadful to read of people being burned to death. But I felt I OUGHT to read it.” “Do you really think your mind has improved any?” asked Sara Ray seriously, wreathing the handle of her basket with creeping spruce. “No, I’m afraid it hasn’t one bit,” answered Cecily sadly. “I feel that I haven’t succeeded very well in keeping my resolutions.” “I’ve kept mine,” said Felicity complacently. “It’s easy to keep just one,” retorted Cecily, rather resentfully. “It’s not so easy to think beautiful thoughts,” answered Felicity. “It’s the easiest thing in the world,” said the Story Girl, tiptoeing to the edge of the pool to peep at her own arch reflection, as some nymph left over from the golden age might do. “Beautiful thoughts just crowd into your mind at times.” “Oh, yes, AT TIMES. But that’s different from thinking one REGULARLY at a given hour. And mother is always calling up the stairs for me to hurry up and get dressed, and it’s VERY hard sometimes.” “That’s so,” conceded the Story Girl. “There ARE times when I can’t think anything but gray thoughts. Then, other days, I think pink and blue and gold and purple and rainbow thoughts all the time.” “The idea! As if thoughts were coloured,” giggled Felicity. “Oh, they are!” cried the Story Girl. “Why, I can always SEE the colour of any thought I think. Can’t you?” “I never heard of such a thing,” declared Felicity, “and I don’t believe it. I believe you are just making that up.” “Indeed I’m not. Why, I always supposed everyone thought in colours. It must be very tiresome if you don’t.” “When you think of me what colour is it?” asked Peter curiously. “Yellow,” answered the Story Girl promptly. “And Cecily is a sweet pink, like those mayflowers, and Sara Ray is very pale blue, and Dan is red and Felix is yellow, like Peter, and Bev is striped.” “What colour am I?” asked Felicity, amid the laughter at my expense. “You’re—you’re like a rainbow,” answered the Story Girl rather reluctantly. She had to be honest, but she would rather not have complimented Felicity. “And you needn’t laugh at Bev. His stripes are beautiful. It isn’t HE that is striped. It’s just the THOUGHT of him. Peg Bowen is a queer sort of yellowish green and the Awkward Man is lilac. Aunt Olivia is pansy-purple mixed with gold, and Uncle Roger is navy blue.” “I never heard such nonsense,” declared Felicity. The rest of us were rather inclined to agree with her for once. We thought the Story Girl was making fun of us. But I believe she really had a strange gift of thinking in colours. In later years, when we were grown up, she told me of it again. She said that everything had colour in her thought; the months of the year ran through all the tints of the spectrum, the days of the week were arrayed as Solomon in his glory, morning was golden, noon orange, evening crystal blue, and night violet. Every idea came to her mind robed in its own especial hue. Perhaps that was why her voice and words had such a charm, conveying to the listeners’ perception such fine shadings of meaning and tint and music. “Well, let’s go and have something to eat,” suggested Dan. “What colour is eating, Sara?” “Golden brown, just the colour of a molasses cooky,” laughed the Story Girl. We sat on the ferny bank of the pool and ate of the generous basket Aunt Janet had provided, with appetites sharpened by the keen spring air and our wilderness rovings. Felicity had made some very nice sandwiches of ham which we all appreciated except Dan, who declared he didn’t like things minced up and dug out of the basket a chunk of boiled pork which he proceeded to saw up with a jack-knife and devour with gusto. “I told ma to put this in for me. There’s some CHEW to it,” he said. “You are not a bit refined,” commented Felicity. “Not a morsel, my love,” grinned Dan. “You make me think of a story I heard Uncle Roger telling about Cousin Annetta King,” said the Story Girl. “Great-uncle Jeremiah King used to live where Uncle Roger lives now, when Grandfather King was alive and Uncle Roger was a boy. In those days it was thought rather coarse for a young lady to have too hearty an appetite, and she was more admired if she was delicate about what she ate. Cousin Annetta set out to be very refined indeed. She pretended to have no appetite at all. One afternoon she was invited to tea at Grandfather King’s when they had some special company—people from Charlottetown. Cousin Annetta said she could hardly eat anything. ‘You know, Uncle Abraham,’ she said, in a very affected, fine-young-lady voice, ‘I really hardly eat enough to keep a bird alive. Mother says she wonders how I continue to exist.’ And she picked and pecked until Grandfather King declared he would like to throw something at her. After tea Cousin Annetta went home, and just about dark Grandfather King went over to Uncle Jeremiah’s on an errand. As he passed the open, lighted pantry window he happened to glance in, and what do you think he saw? Delicate Cousin Annetta standing at the dresser, with a big loaf of bread beside her and a big platterful of cold, boiled pork in front of her; and Annetta was hacking off great chunks, like Dan there, and gobbling them down as if she was starving. Grandfather King couldn’t resist the temptation. He stepped up to the window and said, ‘I’m glad your appetite has come back to you, Annetta. Your mother needn’t worry about your continuing to exist as long as you can tuck away fat, salt pork in that fashion.’ “Cousin Annetta never forgave him, but she never pretended to be delicate again.” “The Jews don’t believe in eating pork,” said Peter. “I’m glad I’m not a Jew and I guess Cousin Annetta was too,” said Dan. “I like bacon, but I can never look at a pig without wondering if they were ever intended to be eaten,” remarked Cecily naively. When we finished our lunch the barrens were already wrapping themselves in a dim, blue dusk and falling upon rest in dell and dingle. But out in the open there was still much light of a fine emerald-golden sort and the robins whistled us home in it. “Horns of Elfland” never sounded more sweetly around hoary castle and ruined fane than those vesper calls of the robins from the twilight spruce woods and across green pastures lying under the pale radiance of a young moon. When we reached home we found that Miss Reade had been up to the hill farm on an errand and was just leaving. The Story Girl went for a walk with her and came back with an important expression on her face. “You look as if you had a story to tell,” said Felix. “One is growing. It isn’t a whole story yet,” answered the Story Girl mysteriously. “What is it?” asked Cecily. “I can’t tell you till it’s fully grown,” said the Story Girl. “But I’ll tell you a pretty little story the Awkward Man told us—told me—tonight. He was walking in his garden as we went by, looking at his tulip beds. His tulips are up ever so much higher than ours, and I asked him how he managed to coax them along so early. And he said HE didn’t do it—it was all the work of the pixies who lived in the woods across the brook. There were more pixy babies than usual this spring, and the mothers were in a hurry for the cradles. The tulips are the pixy babies’ cradles, it seems. The mother pixies come out of the woods at twilight and rock their tiny little brown babies to sleep in the tulip cups. That is the reason why tulip blooms last so much longer than other blossoms. The pixy babies must have a cradle until they are grown up. They grow very fast, you see, and the Awkward Man says on a spring evening, when the tulips are out, you can hear the sweetest, softest, clearest, fairy music in his garden, and it is the pixy folk singing as they rock the pixy babies to sleep.” “Then the Awkward Man says what isn’t true,” said Felicity severely. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (2008). The Golden Road. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/316/pg316-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

FLOWERS O’ MAY

“Stories, as we go forward, are still going to be the most important way we communicate. But, as we’ve gone through time, the way we tell those stories has evolved.” — Steven Spielberg Life is about stories, and humans have been narrating them since time immemorial. From the caveman drawing hunting scenes on the walls to the medieval glass-stained windows telling biblical narratives of salvation, we have told our stories with our available technologies. Revolutions have followed new technologies, like when the printing press helped spread the reformation in Europe. We are now at the edge of such a revolution. There will be winners and losers. The world will be different. I still remember using a typewriter for my high school projects and a non-WYSIWYG WordPerfect editor for my master thesis. Just like the discovery of a new tint allowed the caveman to tell better stories, ChatGPT is enabling us to improve our storytelling. I do not adhere to the idea that the most immediate danger is that AI will just become sentient on its own. I believe that way before that what will happen is that some folks will use AI models to better themselves. The student that is using ChatGPT to prepare the final essay for her class is one example. The job seeker using an AI to prepare cover letters is another. Heck, even the lonely dude trying to pick up a date over Tinder using an AI tool will have advantages over the ones that do not use it. There are uses that give an unfair advantage, like creating an essay. But if you use it to help your support team translate all their product knowledge base articles to almost every language on earth and provide a conversational interface into it, you will be advancing your team and helping your customers. The high school student that suddenly has an always available, incredibly patient online tutor helping her understand the complex topics for her chemistry exam will learn better and probably have better grades. Creating web pages and presentations using just a few prompts will give an advantage to anyone who knows how to interact with the AI system. A web page is, after all, our modern way of telling stories. Digital, interactive, attention seeking, and overall, just a collection of words and images formatted using HTML. Just like the discovery of iron allowed many cultures to own better tools and weapons that brought down the Bronze Age civilizations, LLMs will provide incredible advantages to those who use them wisely. You can use it as a sounding board to bounce ideas off. It already answers with the bravado of a management consultant. And the width of know-how of its models might surprise you with novel concepts. Storytelling just got more powerful. ChatGPT can write in many languages, also obscure ones. It can write concepts in different styles to help you choose the one that fits the message you’re trying to convey. It can evaluate styles and summarize texts for you. Use it to come up with better titles for your stories, to get prompts to create digital art for them, or even to find the best quote to accompany them. So, get your account set. A paid one ensures you have access always, and that you can use the most advanced model. Just as those tribes of cavemen who could paint had an advantage in transmitting their stories, anyone using this new tool wisely will be ahead. And if you have a business case in mind, get your API key and start testing the waters. Don’t go the way the dinosaurs. Get ready to get better at telling stories. And have fun while doing it.

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