Don't grin . . . Bear it

It's the Satyr's day . . .

Gearing up for the vote counts. Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse.

110 years ago today in 1914, During World War I, the Allies and Germans settled into the first trench warfare battle that characterized the remainder of the war on the Western Front in Flanders. By the end of 1914, after just five months of fighting, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four million men. Trench warfare continued to 1917. WWI ended in 1918.

On this day in 1781, Britain's Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American Revolution and assuring America's independence.

In diverse societies, culture wars can never be decisively won. They can only ever reach the peaceful tension of a modus vivendi or fall apart altogether. – Nathan Gardels writing in Noēma, 10.17.24

The part of the human mind that holds a fixed belief is the part of the mind that from an evolutionary point of view needs to name things and name them exactly, even if the name is not true, to create a common language with my community or in order to grant us an illusory sense of control in a constantly moving, restless world. – David Whyte

You may want to consider re-writing your script.

The Bear

When my propane ran out
when I was gone and the food
thawed in the freezer I grieved
over the five pounds of melted squid,
but then a big gaunt bear arrived
and feasted on the garbage, a few tentacles
left in the grass, purplish white worms.
O bear, now that you've tasted the ocean
I hope your dreamlife contains the whales
I've seen, that one in the Humboldt current
basking on the surface who seemed to watch
the seabirds wheeling around her head.

– Jim Harrison, Saving Daylight, Copper Canyon Press 2006