A wonderment . . .

Thursday, July 23, 2026. It's Thor's day . . . Easterlies and a mild – for Summer – day are in the forecasts for Green Country. Sun, summer clouds, low 90's are predicted for the afternoon in TulseyTown. Heat index in the upper 90's.

Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond. – Mark Nepo

Today is the birthday of the novelist who gave us the detective Philip Marlow, Raymond Chandler, born in 1888 Chicago.

Have we stepped into a time machine? – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.

Robert Reich is wondering if he's being unnecessarily alarmist about Ai. The Crash of 2026. Posted on substack today.

Having It Out With Melancholy. A poem by Jane Kenyon.

For The Poet

– after Louise Glück's autobiography for the Nobel Prize

What does not change are the terrible extended periods of silence, the anxiety. And, periodically, the elation of discovery, the strange embarking, the adventure that writing is, each poem a journey into unknown territory. Accompanied rarely and only by music. Mahler is good, the Tchiakovsky, Rachmaninoff, Russian Pantheon, as well as the Scandinavians, Leif Ove Andsnes, La Pietà, Bill Evans. Except when it is insanely easy, writing remains elusive. The random has a mind of its own. Always, I am someone longing to be a poet, to make something never heard before, to be taken out of myself. It’s a wonderment.

– jab

Trusting the sun . . .

Wednesday, July 22, 2026. It's Odin's day . . . and moderate Northerlies bring a break in the heat to Green Country today. TulseyTown's afternoon is to be sunny in the low 90's.

Today is the birthdate of the poet Emma Lazarus. Born in 1849 New York City, she was the author of “The New Colossus,” enscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York City's harbor.

The realist painter Edward Hopper was also born on this day, in 1882 Nyack, New York.

Elon Musk is now in legal hot water. – Joyce Vance, The Week Ahead, in Civil Discourse.

Authoritarianism doesn’t run on one villain alone. It runs on a million volunteers. They are being silenced by you, me and we who refused to shut up. . .That will be the recorded history of this moment. – Miles Taylor, Defiance.

Medical advice? Why we can't trust the usual sources: Who to trust these days. – Joyce Vance in conversation with Dr. Vin Gupta (video), posted to Civil Discourse, 7.20.26. Dr. Gupta listed three independent, trustworthy sources (and none are the CDC or the AMA or the FDA): Gupta's sources : Immunize.org,‍ ‍lung.org , and heart.org.

The Navajo teach their children that every morning when the sun comes up, it’s a brand-new sun. It’s born each morning, it lives for the duration of one day, and in the evening it passes on, never to return again. As soon as the children are old enough to understand, the adults take them out at dawn and they say, “The sun has only one day. You must live this day in a good way, so that the sun won’t have wasted precious time.” – Pema Chödrön, in The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Loving-Kindness, Shambhala, 2018.

Necessary choices . . .

Tuesday, July 21, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . In spite of moderate Northerlies, Green Country forecasts indicate record heat. Real temperatures of 102º with an index of 116º are to greet TulseyTown this afternoon. The triple digits are to extend into the late evening.

Hope isn't a mood that shows up first and convinces you to act. It's what you find growing once you’ve already stepped up. – Pete Buttigieg

Everybody wants a transformation. Nobody wants the hundred boring, thankless days it actually takes to get it. Progress feels like nothing’s happening when you're mid-journey. You only see how far you’ve come once you stop for a moment and look back. – Mark Manson.

Today is the birthdate of Nobel Prize laureate Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899, Cicero [now in Oak Park], Illinois.

Canadian television and film director and producer Norman Jewison was born today in 1926, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Among my many mentors from far, Marshall McLuhan was born on this day in 1911 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

It's also Hart Crane's birthday. The poet was born in 1899 Garrettsville, Ohio.

The novelist and poet John Gardner was born today in 1933 Batavia, New York. He was the author ofGrendel, a retelling of Beowulf from the viewpoint of the monster.

And, poet Tess Gallagher is 83 today. She was born in 1943 Port Angeles, Washington.

Choices

I go to the mountain side

of the house to cut saplings,

and clear a view to snow

on the mountain. But when I look up,

saw in hand, I see a nest clutched in

the uppermost branches.

I don’t cut that one.

I don’t cut the others either.

Suddenly, in every tree,

an unseen nest

where a mountain

would be.

– Tess Gallagher, "Choices" from Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems. Graywolf Press. 2011.

Cat Stevens is 78 today.

All of us made this our choice.