Short Story of the Day, Exhalation, by Ted Chiang

“My message to you is this: pretend that you have free will. It’s essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know they don’t. The reality isn’t important: what’s important is your belief, and believing the lie is the only way to avoid a waking coma. Civilization now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has.”
― Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others

Galatyn Fountain, Richardson, Texas

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang

From Lightspeed Magazine

Wither and Blow Away

Passion is the breath we take, the water we drink to sustain ourselves. Without air and water we perish; without passion an artist will wither and blow away.
—-Jack White

Galatyn Fountain, Richardson, Texas