Destroying questions . . .
It's Tew's day and the Arctic vortex is easing its grip on Okieland ever so slightly . . .
… and it's the birth date of essayist and cultural critic Susan Sontag. She was born on this day in 1933 New York City.
Robert W. Service was also born on this date. The Canadian poet was born in 1874 Preston, England.
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.— Robert Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” Songs of a Sourdough, Barse and Hopkins, New York City, 1907 (original publisher). This poem is in the public domain.
Do you really mean it? – Soren Gordhamer
Democracy is not a noun, but a verb. It only exists if we do it. Conflict, struggle, change are ongoing components of a true democracy. Fear of the “other” easily leads to its dissolution into authoritarian rule. It does not happen overnight. – TED Democracy with Hungarian Tessza Udvarhelyi https://www.ted.com/talks/tessza_udvarhelyi_how_to_build_democracy_in_an_authoritarian_country?
It is we what needs fixing:
The patriarchal worldview imposed upon us is such that we would become Narcissus's mirror...We have no more time for abstraction nor moralizing. Species collapse every day bringing down other beings they have been mutualistically involved with for millenia. Conversely, this does not call for the manic techno-narcissistic death dance of trying to “fix” the world. It calls for slowing down and looking into the pool. What we see is not merely a reflection. We are in the pool. We are not outside of the life forms we are damaging, polluting and destroying. We are intimately of them. – Sophie Strand, in The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine.
We need heroes... be one...vote to save our democracy and protect our Constitution from the MAGA authoritarians.
“The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions . . . . The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is. ― Susan Sontag