Indian summers I have known and loved
I’m stumped.
Here I am, at the Deer Isle (Maine) Writers’ group, with a bunch of other 70- and 80-year-old and maybe even 90-year-old retired white people. The writing prompt is “Indian summers I have known and loved.”
Really?
Indian Summers?
Who’s been to India?
Judith, a good friend and host to today’s gathering, gave us the prompt. I’m pretty sure she knows that Bobbi and I have never been within several thousand miles of India. Time for a quick fact-check: Japan is three thousand seven hundred for me; more for Bobbi. Thank you, Google.
I don’t know Judith’s whole travel history, but I know a lot, and I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been to India either.
So why that prompt?
Why Indian summers and not Maine summers?
Maine summers
Summers in Maine are glorious. There’s a saying, (best heard from someone with an authentic Mainer accent): “If ya cahn’t stahnd the wintahs, ya don’t dhesehve the summahs.” It’s true.
We’re year-rounders, and we earn our Maine summah's. But Indian summers. (With Indian accent): “ɪndɪən ˈsʌmərz” What’s the idea?
Judith, what were you thinking?
That’s when I realize that I’m missing something.
Engineering and poetry
I’m an engineer. Judith is a poet. So maybe interpreting “Indian Summers” literally, like an engineer, is wrong. Maybe I need to interpret it metaphorically, like a poet.
Poets use metaphors. Maybe I need some metaphors.
Great.
Where am I going to find metaphorical meanings for Indian Summers?
I know the answer as soon as I ask the question. It’s obvious. It would be obvious to any engineer. Ask ChatGPT. Or Bard. Or Claude.ai. Or LLaMA. Or your favorite Large Language Model (LLM).
Luckily, like nearly all the other 70- and 80-year-old and maybe even 90-year-old retired white people who have hosted Writers’ Group, Judith has high-speed internet. I’ve got the password. I’ve got my computer. I’ve got everything I need to discover the metaphorical meaning
I open a tab for each LLM and ask each. Every one of them comes through.
The world of meaning
There’s a world of meaning out there, and Google and my LLMs are always ready to help me find meaning.
I checked each one, and Claude.ai has the best answers.
Or at least Claude the most answers. I’m an engineer, not a poet. How would I know what’s best? But I can count what’s m,ost!
But here are Claude’s nine answers. An Indian Summer is:
A fleeting period of joy, freedom, or contentment that ends too soon.
A time of exploration and new experiences that broadens one's horizons.
A bittersweet ending to a lovely experience that must come to a close.
A calm before the storm; a reprieve of easy times before more difficult ones.
A time of creativity, passion, and being in tune with one's spirit.
A period of growth, change, and transformation from one state to another.
A time of appreciation for the simple joys in life.
A reminder that seasons and stages inevitably come and go.
A gift or blessing that arrives unexpectedly.
Alright, Claude! Of course! We’ve got this!
A new meaning
Judith, how could I ever have doubted you?
You meant so much I didn’t see by “Indian Summers.”
Even as an engineer, I could write thousands of words about each of those metaphorical meanings.
If I were a poet, I could write more.
Or a lot less.
My Indian Summers
According to those metaphorical meanings, my life has been a years-long year-round unfolding procession of Indian Summers.
Every summer, an Indian Summer.
Sounds weird, to say, but every winter, an Indian Summer, too.
Maybe that’s poetic.
I don’t know.
I’m just an engineer.
But it seems cool,
So now I know what to write about. But where shall I start?
Where do I start?
This a silly question. As soon as I ask it, the answer is obvious.
I’ve already started.
I started with, “I’m stumped.”
I’ve been going for nearly 600 words.
So maybe the question is: where shall I end?
Another silly question. Once again, the answer is obvious.
Right here.
PS: Happy Petrov Day
Show your work
I wrote this at the Deer Isle Writers’ Group with the help of ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude.ai. I lied about using LLaMA.
Here are links to my chat conversations.
I started by asking each to write a response to the prompt, and then I started freestyling.
Dreamstudio for the image. Maybe I could do better with more tries, but pretty good.
Then I changed the first line and got these
So I put the two side by side. Which is the image at the top
I asked Bard for an image “To celebrate Stanislav Petrov Day” and Bard gave me this one, from this article. Look at his beautiful face!
I asked Claude for a prompt to go with the World of Meaning paragraph and got this
"A digital art illustration depicting a person searching for meaning on their computer. The computer screen shows an AI assistant character named Claude giving thoughtful answers to the person's questions. The background is abstract and dreamy, with symbols representing wisdom, understanding and empathy."
I gave it to Stable Diffusion and got these:
Claude did a nice job on that, so I gave him/her/it the job of doing the paragraph on engineering and poetry
"A surreal digital painting depicting an engineer and a poet sitting together in a room full of books and technology. The engineer is typing questions into a laptop connected to four different AI assistants - ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, and LLaMA. The assistants are personified on the screen with thoughtful expressions. The poet sits nearby, hand on chin, gazing out a window at a beautiful meadow with metaphorical symbols floating through the air - a budding flower, a setting sun, a flock of birds. The style is dreamlike and evocative, representing the blending of literal engineering and metaphorical poetry."
Some of what comes up is pretty cool but not what I want.
So I changed the prompt
"A surreal digital painting depicting an engineer and a poet. There are only two people in the painting. One is a man who is an engineer. The other is a woman who is a poet. They are sitting together in a room full of books and technology. The engineer is typing questions into a laptop. The poet sits nearby, hand on chin, gazing out a window at a beautiful meadow with metaphorical symbols floating through the air - a budding flower, a setting sun, a flock of birds. The style is dreamlike and evocative, representing the blending of literal engineering and metaphorical poetry."
And got something “good enough”
I’m close enough to email length, so I don’t add more images, although I could keep fiddling forever.