It's a process . . .

In Odin’s mailbox . . .

Today in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. East German restrictions on travel to West Berlin had been eased and the consquence was a flood of East Berlin citizens joining up with West Berliners in a midnight celebration that resulted in what has been called “the greatest street party in the history of the world,” and the dismantling of the wall.

Today is also 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when German Nazis following Hitler's order coordinated a nationwide attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. “The night of broken glass,” as it was called, is regarded as the beginning of the Holocaust.

And it's the 94th anniversary the birth of poet Anne Sexton, in Newton, Massachusetts (1928). She was an early and leading writer of the genre that has become called “confessional” poetry. She died in 1974.

Our singular focus on product – whether it be a gross domestic one or a simple domestic one (like dinner) – distracts us from the cooking of it. Our obsession with product keeps us chained to an imaginary future, shackled to the endless creation of anticipated memories. We think … “If only, and only if, [fill in the blank] happens, well, then, I’ll be happy.” But being truly content can only take place in the ever-present. . . No matter if you are a student of Eastern religion, quantum physics or natural sciences, the same truth is revealed: life is process, not product. – Jeff Krasno