Principles of Uncertainty

     Kalman's thoughts and perceptions about everyday people, objects and situations are beautiful. Her

 ideas and painting are so random however in the perfect place. Kalman reiterates the idea that no one's

 perceptions about the world are neither correct or incorrect. She points out simple actions that happen

 every day to possibly help us understand the beauty in these actions. There's one painting of a woman at a

 dinner party putting on red lipstick and Kalman writes under it "The application of lipstick" (137).  I love

 these small little actions that she includes in this book because all of these actions lead to a bigger

 picture. This woman is applying lipstick, why? Because she is at a dinner party and wants to look nice,

 why? Maybe because this is how she wants to present herself. The questions could go on and on but they

 are part of the bigger picture of dinner parties or social gatherings. There's a purpose to why we say and

 do things and they are all connected to how we personally perceive the world.  

    In her chapter set on January 3, 2007, Kalman shows pictures from behind of people walking on the

 streets. The dialogue over a few pages is "The sun will blow up in five billion years. Knowing that, How

 could anyone want a war. Or plastic surgery. But I am being naive. And the unknown is so unknowable.

 And who is to judge? Really" (220-222). Kalman asks questions that lead straight to the root of many

 problems like war and surface-level desires. She questions why we bother worrying about these things

 and fighting when, one day, nothing will exist. She wonders what the point of anything is if it has been

 proven that the sun will blow up and earth will be over. But, Kalman can not be naive with her thoughts

 and she understands that even if life has no meaning at all, people have made meaning out of life. People

 have found things to worry about like war and how they look. War and plastic surgery are two very

 different things but in the way that Kalman writes about them, she makes their relation seem so simple.

 Both are destructive and at times could be seen as a little selfish, but they are all a part of the bigger

 picture of trying to make meaning out of a meaningless life, and Kalman maybe even suggests that there

 is nothing wrong with trying to do that. She asks who should judge because when she makes these

 observations, it is not out of judgement or self-righteousness. She makes these observations about life to

 try and understand how we connect or disconnect from ourselves.    

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