The Great Books . . .
Sunday, June 28, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . getting even for all the rain, Sol is coming on full Summer to Green Country. Strong, gusty Southerlies with hot, humid conditions in the mid 90's visit TulseyTown. Afternoon heat indices are to be in the low 100s. No rain in the forecasts for the next ten days.
Prayer is not sending in an order and expecting it to be fulfilled. Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world, to love, the force that moves the sun and the moon and the stars. – Br. David Stendl-Rast.
One of the most influential writer/philosophers in Western civilization, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on this day in 1712, Geneva, Switzerland.
Today is the birthdate of Mortimer J. Adler. The philosopher, educator, and editor was born in 1902 New York City. He was a successful advocate of adult and general education by study of the great writings of the Western world.
Peter Paul Rubens was born today in 1577, Siegen, Nassau, Westphalia [Germany]. His paintings fused a mastery of Flemish realism with the traditions of the Italian Renaissance to produce a powerful style that epitomized the immensely popular Baroque movement.
Today is also the birthdate of influential Italian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, Luigi Pirandello. The winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature was born in 1867 Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. Years ago, Yers Trooley acted the role of “Father” in Pirandello's award winning play “Six Characters In Search Of An Author.”
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a series of violent confrontations between police and gay rights activists began outside the Stonewall Inn , a gay bar in New York City; the riots helped launch an international gay rights movement.
Mourning in America. – Robert Reich, Sunday Thought.
And, it's the birthdate of the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley. He was born in 1703 Epworth, Lincolnshire, England.
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. – John Wesley
Where to shine our light . . .
Saturday, June 27, 2026. It's the Satyr's day at 8:30 a.m. . . .So much for forecasts: It rained overnight in TulseyTown. Forecasts for Green Country continue to indicate dry weather beginning in the afternoon. Summertime humidity and heat in the low 90's with moderate Southerlies.
Documented in the filmFarmacy of Light: Researchers analyzing historical agricultural data have documented significant declines in essential vitamins and trace minerals in modern crops compared to those grown in the 1950s … Why? Depleted soil. Industrial farming methods. Food that travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate, losing biophotonic vitality every mile of the way – FYI: Today may be the last day to watch Farmacy of Light for free.
We actually are “beacons of light.”
The United States is now a beacon of heartlessness. The Supremes have sided with Trump on immigration … and it's beyond worse. Enough so, that Justice Kagan filed an angry dissent to the record.
Everything in your life is about to get more expensive (again). The hundreds of thousands of the people about to be sent home are the workers holding up your daily life. – Miles Taylor, in Defiance, 6.26.26
The Trump administration appears to be attempting to demographically change the country to what it looked like 75 years ago, when the white population was over 80 percent. It's a way of undoing the demographic and political power that has been coming with people of color. – Rogelio Sáenz, Professor in the Department of Demography at the University of University of Texas at San Antonio
It's no longer right vs. left … the dynamic is best understood as one of bottom vs. top, now underway. – Robert Reich, A Guide for the Perplexed, 6.26.6
Today is the birthdate of Helen Keller, born in 1880 Tuscumbia, Alabama; novelist Alice McDermott is 73 today, born in 1953 Brooklyn, New York; writer and activist Grace Lee Boggs was born today in 1915 Providence, Rhode Island; and Edward Gibbon completed the final sixth volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The dharma keeps offering the same invitation: stay here, do less, trust this.
FYI “dharma” is a word with ancient origins dating back millinnia with multiple meanings with one general theme. In Western terms, dharma is the whole of ontological reality and is an expression of what I perfer to term as “The Way,” after Lao Tzu (also called Laozi) and the Tao Te Ching (The Way of The Way). It cannot be “told,” only experienced in each moment-by-moment existence.
Winning the blues lottery . . .
Friday, June 26, 2026. It's Frigg's day . . . and there is no rain in the forecasts for Green Country for the next ten days. TulseyTown is to begin drying out with moderate Southerlies, sun, clouds and near 90º mid afternoon.
If you took a very long ruler that stretched from here to the planet Pluto, one inch of that distance would be you. The rest of the distance would be other possible human beings that could have been, but never were. Each of us has won a lottery with a hundred thousand billion different players. – Alan Lightman, “The Figment of You,” in Maria Popova's Sunday Edition of The Marginalian, 6.21.26
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published today in 1997. It was the first in a series by J.K. Rowling that set records and introduced reading to a whole new generation.
Today is the birthdate of novelist Pearl Buck (The Good Earth). The Nobel laureate was born in 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia.
Jane Austen, despite all. – David Whyte
Finally, the courts have ordered the release of the complete Epstein files. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.
Older generations often complain that they don't make songs like they used to. Now, a study confirms that this really is the case, as song lyrics have shifted from moral virtues to vices over the past 60 years. – U.S. edition of The Daily Mail.6.24.26.
And, blues musician Big Bill Broonzy was born on this day in 1898 or 1893 in Scott, Mississippi or in Lake Dick, Arkansas.