Delight is laughing at perfection like a kid. You can't help it. It's me trying to paint in watercolors when I was six and getting frustrated and then Dad sitting down and quietly painting this perfect self-portrait next to me, a little watercolor Dad in a beard and red shirt, and me watching over his shoulder, laughing because he was so good I almost couldn't believe it. Or watching the rock-climber Diane do an overhang climb so smoothly it looks effortless. Or reading about this famous hack wherein two processes, named Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, resurrect each other when one's killed with a "Help, I'm under attack!" and an "I'll save you brave Robin..." from the other, so that, unless you kill them with perfect simultaneity (nearly impossible) they never die. Or watching stick birds hop around and realizing how perfect and silly it all is.
Posted by Alan at June 25, 2003 11:13 AM