Facts, fiction, and faith . . .

Tuesday, December 16, 2025. It's Tiws' day . . . Moderate Southerlies and a warming trend are in the forecasts for TulseyTown for the next ten days. Afternoons with a mix of sun and clouds and near 60's.

Reality is always falling apart. In this fleeting situation, the only thing that makes sense is for us to reach out to one another. – Pema Chödrön

Trump as viewed from North of the border. – Robert Reich, The True Catastrophe, online 12.16.25

A prominent preservationist group is suing President Donald Trump over his construction of a massive ballroom, arguing that he sidestepped legally required reviews.

Heather Cox Richardson provided details on the lawsuit. In Letters From An American

The week ahead. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.

Three Brit authors share birthdays today:

Jane Austen was born in 1775 Hampshire, England; Noël Coward was born in 1899, Teddington, near London; and Arthur C. Clarke was born in 1917, Minehead, Somerset.

Another science fiction author – an American – Philip K. Dick was born on this day in 1928, Chicago, Illinois.

What happens to the leaves after

they turn red and golden and fall?

… Do you think there is any

personal heaven for any of us?

… If I had another life

I would want to spend it

all on some unstinting happiness.

… I wouldn't mind being a rose

in a field of roses.

Fear has not yet occurred to them,

nor ambition. Reason

they have not yet thought of.

Neither do they ask how long

they must be roses, and then what,

Or any other foolish question.

– Mary Oliver, reading (audio) “Roses Late Summer,” in House of Light, Beacon Press, 1990.

Incomprehesibly “Merry.”

Monday, December 15, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . Moderate Southerlies return to TulseyTown with sun, a few clouds and upper 40's this afternoon. A warming trend is indicated in the forecasts for the next ten days with afternoon 50's and 60's.

Today in 1917, The Bill of Rights was adopted as a single unit of ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, becoming the law of the land.

Today is the birthdate of Freeman Dyson. The mathematician, physicist, nuclear engineer, military advisor, arms control advocate, essayist, public intellectual, futurist, and visionary – not all at the same time but sometimes – was born in 1923 Crawthorne Village, Berkshire, England.

The poet Muriel Rukeyser was born on this day in 1931 New York City .

Trump's incomprehensible “Merry” Christmas. – Robert Reich, in Sunday Thought, 12.14.25

Yesterday in 1985 Wilma Mankiller became the first woman ever to serve as chief of a major Native tribe when she was sworn in as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Speaking of yesterday, which we were, about sociocultural conditioning:

Ego can’t imagine how vast and intelligent, how much penetrating wisdom and love there is that transcends self, how much love there is that loves all—it can’t imagine any of this is possible because the ego is bound. Love transcends self. – Sunisa Manning

Much rheortic abounds these days around the word “woke” as if that trait were somehow a bad thing. So, what's the opposite of “woke?” Asleep.

Asleep and awake, I wake.
Never having written
What I have to say.
No poem offers of me
My central meaning,
I have danced to my naming
And danced away.

Now I move past my dreams.

– Muriel Rukeyser, “Asleep and Awake,” originally published in Poetry Magazine, January 1952.

Sociocultural conditioning . . .

Sunday, December 14, 2025. It's Sol's day . . . The wind chill in TulseyTown this morning as I opened the mailbox was 4º with a moderate Northerly. Forecasts indicate a sunny afternoon in the low 30's with wind chills in the teens until the breeze eases.

It’s not life’s job to make us happy. It’s our job to find the joy in life by observing and appreciating the small wonders and everyday miracles tht are all around us, everywhere, every minute of our lives.

The deeply personal experience of a “dark night of the soul” heightens our connections to all living beings, such that we may become light for others. – Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation.

Surviving doubt. Mirabai Starr translates from John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul.

The Dictates Of Sociocultural Air-Conditioning

In the winter's cold

one can always wear more layers.

– jab