Bloody unimaginable . . .
It's Thor's day, and today in the year 79 A.D. Thor's hammer fell erupting Mount Vesuvius destroying the Roman city of Pompeii. 331 years later, to the day in 410 A.D., Visigoths sacked Rome in the first successful invasion in 800 years. The attack marked the beginning of the end of the Western Roman Empire. No doubt, unimaginable at the time.
It's the 124th anniversary of Jorge Luis Borges' birth, in 1899 Buenos Aires. The Argentine poet, short-story writer, and essayist wrote labyrinthian prose that gave rise to the term "magical realism.”
Universities are cutting the Humanities, and students are paying the price. In an existence run by artificial intelligence [in order] to saving a dollar or two, it seems that human beings are the first to go. – Brian Broome
“No one is immune to the byproducts of compulsory schooling and standardized testing. And while reform may be a worthy cause for some, it is not enough for countless others still trying to navigate the tyranny of what schooling has always been. . . .we need . . . systems truly designed for any human to learn, grow, socialize, and thrive, regardless of age, ability, background, or access to money.” – Akilah Richards from Raising Free People
We think in such a small, small way. We think fear and anger and judgment and punishment are going to achieve love—but show me where? – Richard Rohr
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide . . .
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
– Billy Collins, from The Apple that Astonished Paris. University of Arkansas Press, 1996.