“Heuristics” [Reflections on Book – The End of College (Chapter)]

The fancy word that’s used today
For “Rules of thumb” (no better way
To get your point across today
Then make your point in words in play).

Phrase, “Rule of thumb”, comes from the past –
“Yes, beat your wife, but stick, alas,
No thicker than your thumb must be,
Or we’ll arrest you – worried be”.

So what “Heuristics” means, in fact,
Is “Screen for sorting out the packs
Of info pouring in our brains
Through senses six – for greater gain”.

And underneath it all is “Stats” –
Think “Probably” and go with that –
We “Satisfice” things all the time,
And for most things we make out fine.

“That shape is probably a rock;
In case it is, I’d better stop
My car and take a closer look,
Not drive this roadway by the book”.

“Heuristic” is the word that’s used
For “Shapes of things” – we get infused
With tons of them as we grow up –
“Surprise” is when they “Fail” (bad luck!)

“Surprise is when we learn ‘afresh’;
We learn so well when we confess,
“Heuristic I was using failed,
When by reality assailed”.

To question “Rules of thumb” in life,
Makes us stand back and think of wife
As maybe worthy of much more
Than life as “beaten one” before.

The Scripture, like great literature,
Good music, art, produces curves
In roads we travel down each day –
Brings new heuristics into play.

“A book’s machine to think with”, so
We read great classics – change we know
As we are mentored in such tomes –
Great minds, through books, come to our homes.

The platforms come and go I guess,
But education, at its best
Surprises us heuristically –
New views of life from planted seeds.

Thanks Lord for this.

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