What is beauty for?

It's Sol's day . . . The Springiest day yet in Northeast Okieland, trees and flowers a-bloom and headed for record high temperatures . . .

What can we do in a culture dominated by huge corporations that want us to spend hours every day swiping and scrolling? – Ted Gioia

Today is the birth date of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Among the leaders of what became impressionism, he was born today in 1841 Limoges, France.

The 151st anniversary of Enrico Caruso's birth is today. “The greatest tenor ever” was born on this day in 1873 Naples, Italy.

In 1950, one of the most successful variety shows television has ever seen debuted on NBC. "Your Show of Shows" featured Cid Ceaser and Imogene Coca with an unequalled ensemble of writers and comedians.

George Harrison born today in 1943, Liverpool, England

And Chelsea Handler turns 49 today. The comedian was born in 1975, Livingston, New Jersey

The hero’s journey is not to just keep going to new places, making the trip a vacation or travelogue. We have to return to where we started and know it in a new way and do life in a new way. — Richard Rohr

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets, Gardners Books, 2001. Originally published 1943.

FYI: Little Gidding is a real place.

Have you finally figured out what beauty is for?

And have you changed your life?

– Mary Oliver, “Swan,” Swan, Beacon Press, 2010