UCB Prayer

James Bowden

Life must move. Either it is the truck and I am owned, or I am the truck and life is owned. Either way, someone must be a truck and I pity them for it.

God, grant me the strength to be accepting in the face of uncertainty, and the youthfulness to be compelled by it. Let me not be the truck. Let me trust, allow me faith.

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UCB is the upper confidence bound, an algorithm for acquiring data points that’s characterized as being optimistic in the face of uncertainty. This poem is largely based on Anne Sexton’s poem “Jesus Suckles”, so if you’re confused that might help clear it up. A really very wonderful poem too, by the way.