Before we get to today's monologue, I need and want to say a big thanks to everyone who helps support this channel by signing up to my patreon.com site.

Actually, while I'm on the subject, I can point out that on YouTube, my subscriber count has been stuck at 318,000 for about three months now, which is possible,

but I find it suspicious.

Anyway, coming to Patreon, looking for me and signing up costs about the price of a coffee every month.

Well, you become a member, you get early access to all my content,

and you get exclusive weekly access to some stuff, including a question and answer session

that we're very pleased with. We enjoy it very much.

You ask the questions and I answer them.

It's right next door to having a conversation.

The details are on the website.

There's an address down there.

Easy to find.

It's a great site.

But if you come along and join, you'll make it even better.

Okay, let's get to the monologue.

Thank you. Okay, let's get to the monologue. I had an experience these past few days that reassured me about the unique and irreplaceable value of human beings, the original model, Mark I, accept no imitations.

To say any more about the experience itself would only be self-serving, but suffice to say,

I was reminded in the most humbling way of the potential of my fellow humankind.

I'll concede right away that there's ugliness all around all the time, manifest in everything

from casual cruelty inflicted on human and animal alike to careless contempt for the environment

we live in. But at the same time, in every village, in every town, in every community made of people, there are also wells of

compassion and empathy so deep as to be essentially bottomless.

...