There's just no accounting for happiness . . .
Sunday, May 24, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . At 7 a.m. there was a lovely patchy fog in TulseyTown, lifting toward a sunny afternoon. Easy Easterlies are in the forecasts with warm mid 80's.
“A righteous use of the estate of the General Lee.” – Heather Cox Richardson in Letters From An American. A Memorial Day reflection.
Robert Reich’s Sunday Thought brought another reflection on Memorial Day. –
Bob Dylan turns 85 today, born in 1941 St. Louis County, Minnesota. His 69-year career has provided accolades as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, including a Nobel Prize. He continues to tour for live performances.
Today is also the birthday of Jim Broadbent. The British character actor and Academy Award Laureate is 77 today.
U.S. Poet Laureate and Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Brodsky, was born on this day in 1940 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Yesterday was the birth date of poet Jane Kenyon. Today's blog is dedicated to her memory.
– Join Amanda Palmer as she reads Jane Kenyon’s stunning poem about living to the other side of depression. “Having It Out with Melancholy” is from Constance, Graywolf Press.1993.
Happiness
There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.
No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.
It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
– Jane Kenyon, “Happiness” is from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Graywolf Press. 1955.
Dictated by doubt . . .
Saturday, May 23, 2026. It's 8 a.m. on the Satyr's day as I build this blog (now delayed by computer glitch until 11a.m.) . . . Morning rains in Green Country are to end before Noon. Easy Southerlies maintain cloudy skies through the afternoon in the mid 70's. Forecasts for TulseyTown predict a peek at sunshine at sundown.
“I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.” – Francis Ford Coppola
Poet Jane Kenyon was born on this day in 1947.
A mycelial metaphor – Sophie Strand, Make Me Good Soil, 5.21.26
Update: Microplastics invading our bodies.
Trump is likely to lose the midterms, but a global crime-spree would likely follow. – Miles Taylor, in Defiance, 5.22.26
Sixty-two years ago yesterday then President Lyndon Johnson outlined his vision for “The Great Society.” It was an historic occasion, one recalled by Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Stanly Kubrick's psychological horror film The Shining premiered on this day in 1980.
When the World Is Designed to Make You Panic – Sam Harris at Commune.
Beholding “just this.” Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 5.22.26
Two minutes in nature.
One hour in our national parks.
Utterly stupid, morally wrong . . .
Friday, May 22, 2026. It's Frigg's day . . . at 9:30 a.m. light Easterlies brought rain showers to TulseyTown, ending before Noon. Forecasts for Green Country indicate clouds and sun in the afternoon with upper 70's. Sun, clouds and 20% rain chances extend through the weekend to Wednesday when the rains are to return.
If every goal you set came true, you’d be trapped living the dreams of someone who no longer exists. Set goals. But treat them as experiments, not destiny. The point isn’t to achieve your goals. The point is to outgrow them. – Mark Mason
Four who outgrew their birthdays: Multi-laureate British actor Laurence Olivier was born in 1907 Dorking, Surrey, England; the author/creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, was born in 1859 Edinburgh, Scotland; impressionist painter Mary Cassatt was born in 1844, Allegheny City [now part of Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania; and the composer Richard Wagner was born in 1813, Leipzig, Germany.
“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong—Take your pick.” – Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American, 5.22.26
Blanche says we support Trump's slush fund. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 5.22.26
Corruptonomics. – Robert Reich, A Memo To Democratic candidates, 5.22.26
Wagner summarized disaster in Götterdämmerung