The real work . . .

In the Monday mailbox . . .

As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the Neolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude . . . – Gary Snyder, born 93 years ago today in 1930 San Francisco.

A Marxist's solution to the ecology crisis: De-growth. As a metaphor for the environment it fits rather nicely into the niche being generated by functional medicine and the organic food movement consideration regarding de-aging and extending the life span. Jus' sayin' …

We believe because we understand. If you don’t believe something then put it aside for a while or go study more. – Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (nee: Diane Perry)

Doomscrolling. If you continually focus on everything that’s going wrong, all you’re going to do is gather more evidence for why that’s correct. This is going to feed into the cycle of cynicism. And then when you do encounter something that actually might be more neutral or even good, it doesn’t even enter your awareness...opening up your field of inquiry...you may begin seeing what’s out there rather than imposing a preassumed story about what’s going on...We’re living in an age where there’s information coming at us from left, right, and center. We’re dealing with things that we’ve never had to deal with before. We have to be willing to dive into the mess. You can’t look at the mess and be intimidated and just say no. If we don’t jump in, someone else is going to jump in for us, and we’re going to end up in a future that we haven’t taken part in at all. – Emma Varvaloucas

. . . under the tough old stars—

In the shadow of bluffs

I came back to myself,

To the real work, to

“What is to be done.”

– Gary Snyder from “I Went into the Maverick Bar” in Turtle Island. New Directions, 1974.