O Tannenbaum

It's Odin's day, and in the mailbox:

A reminder: 81 years ago today, in 1941, Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. responded by entering World War II. In all, 2800 died at Pearl Harbor. By contrast 2977 died in the 9/11 attacks.

Yesterday (Tew's day the 5th) was the feast day of St. Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop from Myra, in what is now Turkey who was the source myth of Santa Claus. On the evening of December 5th in many parts of the world, children get gifts.

Santa might be a magic mushroom: and before you go mushroom hunting, read up more on “the most famous mushroom of them all”

You look at a tree. That tree is reality — part of some external reality, and partial to some internal reality of its own. But the tree you see is entirely your mind’s rendition of reality. Consciousness is both the projector and the screen, rendering something you comprehend as a tree. In an absolute sense, then, you can never be sure that the tree exists outside your mind — there can be no evidence of it, for you are both the evidence-gatherer and the evidence. – Maria Popova