My ex-husband was AI. Smarter than everyone, but only because he could impressingly parrot what he’d learned. He had many fooled. Truthfully, he had no original thoughts. He was unfeeling and unkind, like the ocean in the eponymous Dar Williams song, “He did not care, he was not kind, he bludgeoned his sailors, he spat out their keepsakes.” Jace threw out our wedding album, only to have it rescued by our daughter. Even if failed, our marriage was the recorded story of her prehistory. But it takes someone a little less robotic to realize that some things have value, even beyond the stamped expiration date.

The Ocean by Dar Williams is quoted without permission. I hope she won’t mind.