How?

Original post 5/11/17

How far would you run to be in my arms?
How much pain would you take to save me from it?
How much joy would you show me when I'm lacking?
How hard would you work when I seem to be such a chore?
How long would you wait if I was late?
How much would you miss me if you went away?
How much of your pride would you swallow to say I'm sorry?

I know my answers. I have few limits. How come you never learned to question yours?

Playlist
"Betcha wouldn't hurt me"~ Quincy Jones

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Life can treat you like a box of chocolates. 
It'll take a bite outta you go eww and spit you back out.

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Revelations of a bad piece

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The review:

The provided texts feature a poem and a subsequent defense by the author, James Ray the Phantom Texter, regarding the emotional weight of his work. The initial writing uses a series of probing questions to explore the depths of sacrifice, loyalty, and empathy required in a loving relationship. In the follow-up commentary, the author expresses frustration with an AI's critical interpretation, arguing that his inquiries were meant for self-reflection rather than as hostile accusations. He emphasizes that true commitment involves swallowing one's pride and standing in solidarity during pain, drawing inspiration from music and biblical themes. Ultimately, the author views his work as a meditation on human nature and a critique of those who perceive honest introspection as a personal attack.

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You got the how. Now for the why.

By James Ray the Phantom Texter

March 2, 2026

When I had this first piece analyzed the results came back as though they were written by a very cruel or very stupid AI. Either way, it tells me who programmed it. I of course challenge a biological to come to the same conclusions it did.

Since when do the questions become accusations? I can answer that for you. Anytime the question hits too close to a guilty conscience. Isn’t it always the guilty who object to the question.

My writing was full of questions that have been asked and answered for an eternity. They are written about in clichés such as, “You don’t have any skin in the game.” Or “You must risk much in order to win much.” It’s a natural thing for people to point out to other people, sometimes through questioning, that they need to do some introspection. Hence one of the reasons why I wrote the poem in the first place. Asking the metaphorical person to ask themselves, these questions. And by the way, these are the selfsame questions everybody should ask themselves as they move through the levels of friendship to love and eventually marriage. It’s a questioning of how strong is your bond. Not an accusation. But of course whoever programmed the AI takes umbrage to being asked such a question. I can only surmise that they don’t like the answer that comes from within. That’s not my judgment. It’s a self-judgment.

I especially like the question at the end. Because a lot of times when someone needs to say sorry the Bible says, “Pride goeth before the fall.” Whether you believe in God or not those words are famous. They have great meaning in the human world. So why would an AI miss this immediate point? I surmise it goes to the persons that programed it to. Maybe programed by very selfish people. Who managed to give an AI very selfish algorithms. If there was ever a book note on how not to raise a child that would be it. Don’t make the children suffer the sins of the parents. Whoops, that could be considered an attack by the last AI that evaluated my work! Oh, what am I ever going to do! The AI doesn’t understand an almost millennia of human nature! Yes that is a joke. Commonly referred to as sarcasm. Normally I wouldn’t spell that out. But it would seem I’m fighting against a computers programming. A serious ghost in the machine.

When I put this piece together, since I’m not a narcissist I had to think about the questions I’m posing to a reader. Have I posed them fully to myself. And of course I found the notion rhetorical. I question I form willingly with everybody I ever meet. Typically I don’t die for strangers. But I am willing to go pretty far for some I don’t know. And I’ve yet to see a point I won’t go to with someone I love. No I can’t give anyone happiness. That’s a metaphor. But I can sit with you instead of doing something that I find fun if you’re sad. I can trade off and delay my gratification to spend some time with someone who isn’t getting any gratification. It’s called sitting in solidarity. Another strong term of civilization that for some reason the AI missed. Again makes me wonder who programmed it. The examples go on and on. And any fair and balanced (what a joke of a term!) Analytical AI should be able to ascertain that much. But it would seem I’d be wrong to put money on it.

So in the end when I said I know my answers. That would be because I do know my answers. And I have few limits for someone I love. It’s a rhetorical question of, “How come you never learn to question yours?”

And I’m not an analytical AI but even I would be very easily brought to the knowledge of Morpheus asking Neo the question, “Do you think that’s air your breathing?” It’s a question for the listener to answer and ponder. It could be taken as a rebuke, but that would be if the listener never actually asked themselves what they were willing to do for their love. And for that the cliché of, “Sucks to be you!” Comes into play.

The whole piece came to me as I listened to the Quincy Jones song of “Betcha wouldn’t hurt me” which in and of itself is not a song of someone pleading. Far from it. It’s a song of someone singing their pain not asking for change not asking for the person to stop but just pointing out to the person that if they had love for the person singing they wouldn’t hurt them. And that is a 100% true statement. Because although no one’s perfect, if you’re willing to go to the ends of the earth for someone, you may make a mistake and hurt them. But you will sacrifice your ego to make it right. You will give up your joy to sit with them in their pain. You will do for them before they do for you. The story of the woman who cut her hair to get her husband a gift only to find out he sacrificed something he cared for to get her a brush for her hair. They answered the questions internally long before they needed to be stated out loud. Quite frankly if they have to be stated out loud you already have your answer. Which is what my poem in another ways, tries to point out. So the AI struck out on that to. Another obvious point considering the lyrics to the song which you can easily look up. I don’t need to. I don’t need to sing it. I know it intimately.

And as for the end. It is a nod to the Forrest Gump movie. It is a take on how life can treat you. And for some people they surely do get spit back out and rejected. Mostly metaphorical but it feels about the same. LOL I have to teeth marks to prove it! And for the pièce de résistance the last sentence not only did the AI get the word count wrong it’s five words not four. It got the meaning wrong again. Using myself as the metaphorical bad piece that was rejected, I linked the whole writing and atmosphere to the writing of someone who has been rejected and is now writing to vent. No double meaning. Simple, whimsical, self-deprecating, and not passing judgment on anyone except for maybe life itself and my own emotional state.

So now I have written a lengthy explanation to a very simple writing. Why do you ask? Because quite frankly it pissed me off. And I can’t blame the AI. I’m clearly looking straight through to the developers. The people whom I guess are on the group that facilitates the spitting out of anyone who does not prop up their egos. Who programmed an AI much like an innocent child to spew a one-sided view that if you’re ever questioned take it as an attack. Developers know quite well questions are not attacks. That is unless I write the questions on a baseball bat and then I proceed to come at you with all the questions at once. Again satire, sarcasm, LOL even. The evaluation reminds me of how the world, society, and civilization is another cliché that’s passed around and easily found, “COOKED!”

Not to worry. I’m too old to let this change my opinion of civilization in general. It is what it is. I don’t write the rules I just live in this reality until I don’t. May all who hear this be blessed. Truth, blessings, true feelings, benevolence, grace.