Statistics and Mindfulness . . .

     April was Math-Stat Awareness Month and National Poetry Month  -- and here in this blog we celebrate those topics year-round -- today with a selection from Larry Lesser, professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, and first published at the website of  The American Statistical Association.

     Mindful Means      by Lawrence M. Lesser

     An explanatory variable has a response and
     The space
     Before response is deemed
     Freedom,
     Sought by degrees:
     More time to reflect
     If randomness is
     Uniform, if correlation is
     Causal, chance, or complexity yet
     Unnamed.     

     In the space
     To scan
     What’s there, what else
     Could be: mediator or moderator
     Variable.
     Not bearing burden of being
     Certain, we seek habit
     To inhabit uncertainty –
     To describe, not deny –
     And fail to reject.

     Conducting a study of one
     Being present in the moment,
     Not lost in time series,
     Letting noise and outliers pass,
     Centered in breath,
     Eyes shut to better see our mode
     Beyond expectation,
     Sitting in the lotus,
     No longer standing for
     Law Of The Unconscious Statistician.