The I I thought I was . . .

Monday, May 19, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . Forecasts for TulseyTown today indicate strong Southerlies, temps in the upper 70's and with a 70% chance of thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado could manifest with some storms so says the weatherfeather, and a 50% chance that the storms will extend until midnight tonight.

We never really know whether an event is fortune or misfortune, we only know our ever-changing reactions to ever-changing events. – Alan Watts in Maria Popova's The Marginalian.

Late last night, the House Budget Committee passed what Republicans are calling their “Big, Beautiful Bill” to enact Trump’s agenda. It is a disaster for middle and lower income Americans. Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American provided a clear picture that should lead you to verbal outrage at your House/Senate Congressional representatives.

Joyce Vance's The Democracy Index is meant for people with less time to devote to following what Trump is doing to our country, but who still want to understand what it all means.

Today is the birthday of Malcom X, born in 1925 Omaha, Nebraska. The assassinated civil rights advocate is still making news 60 years after his death.

And its the birthday of playwright Lorraine Hansberry. The author of “A Rasin in the Sun” was born in 1930 Chicago.

My heart is a pen in Your hand

Who am I when love obliterates the I

I thought I was,

drawing me from one path,

leading me on another?

I could tell you,

but everytime I get to this point,

the tip of my pen breaks.

[…]

This pen feel no pride or shame.

It doesn't applaud or lash itself.

It knows only that it traverses the unknown.

The mind can't contain these paradoxes--

how the pen surrenders form to the formless,

giving the formless form.

– Rumi, in Water:Rumi, translation by Haleh Lza Gafori, New York Review Books, 2025.