Forward, into the past . . .

Monday, January 12, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . Today and tomorrow, TulseyTown's weather will be flirting with 70º afternoons before the cold returns Wednesday. Roller-coaster Northerlies and Southerlies are to mix clouds and sun.

We never experience the past or future directly. If all we ever experience is the present, then time has never existed as a line from past to future. What we call a “moment” is not a slice of time but an open, timeless presence.

Building the back story. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American

The author of Call of the Wild, Jack London, was born on this day in 1876 San Francisco.

It's John Hancock's birthday. The first to sign the Declaration of Independence was born in 1737,Braintree, now in Quincy, Massachusetts.

If an earthquake struck and the walls rattled and windows broke, you wouldn’t go on grilling hamburgers, you’d want to see what a cataclysm looks like. Turn on your TV, or, if you dare: open your door. – Garrison Keillor, “Watching the World Fall Apart,” The Column, 1.9.26

Post hoc, ergo, propter hoc

Nobody knows what's going on anymore

Because

Nobody knows what's going on anymore.

– jab (probably in Dubuque)

Open to wonder . . .

Sunday, January 11, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . Northerlies make for cold mornings this week. Sunshine and upper 40's this afternoon in TulseyTown.

How do you open the heart? Start to love that which you can love, and just keep expanding. You love a tree, you love a river, you love a leaf, you love a flower, you love a cat, you love a human. Go deeper and deeper into that love, until you love that which is the source of the light behind all of it. – Ram Dass

The American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was born on this day in1755 Charlestown on the island of Nevis, British West Indies.

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of the divinity itself and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.” – Alexander Hamilton, “The Farmer Refuted,” (pamphlet) February, 1775, in New York.

Our power, our courage.-- Robert Reich, Sunday Thought, 1.11.26

Science often affirms what were for centuries the highly suspect intuitions of the Scriptures and mystics. We now take it for granted that everything in the universe is deeply connected and linked, even light itself, which interestingly is the first act of creation. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “A Brilliant Start,” in Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 1.11.26

Maybe the essence of faith is dumb childlike wonder. – Garrison Keillor, Watching the Ball Drop, 1.7.26

Wonder

This is the season of gift giving. It is also the season of wonder. They seem to go hand in hand

I hold my cup with both my two hands

blessed with the sensations of touch

taste, warmth and the gifts returned

from blessings offered to all beings

and to all things forever past,

infinitely present, eternally future.

Here there is no fear. Love

makes of the cold my friend,

water feeds my soul

ignorant of its innocence

saying “yes” to everything

wondering about my sense of wonder

at my blessings. — jab

Red tape and wild horses . . .

Saturday, January 10, 2026. It's the Satyr's day . . . Moderate Northerlies make for a chilly day for TulseyTown. While skies are forecast to be sunny, they'll be accomanied by low 50's and an all day wind chill in the 40's.

All our laws and rules to protect coral reefs now stand in the way of radical action to save them from heat death. – Irus Braverman, “ Red tape on a blue planet,” in Aeon, 1.10.25

Today in 1949 RCA introduced the 45-rpm record. It became the standard format for rock and roll and changed an entire generation, and consequently, the world.

Poet Philip Levine was born on this day in 1928 Detroit, Michigan.

And, Dorianne Laux is 75 today. The poet/professor was born in 1952 Augusta, Maine.

Wild Horses

Mustangs were bred for stamina, little knock-kneed

engines. InThe Misfits they were bred for dog food.

Marilyn Monroe was even more beautiful in black and white.

– Dorianne Laux, read and listen to her reading “Wild Horses,” Poetry Magazine, 2022.