Being prefaces doing …

It's Sol's day and easy Northerlies have replaced the thunderstorms that overnight visited much of Okieland …

You don’t become religious, don’t believe in any god.

You don’t have an enlightenment.

It’s something that happens to you

in the middle of a mindful moment.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on this date in 1896 St. Paul, Minnesota.

Today is the 130th anniversary of the birth of “Blind” Lemon Jefferson. Considered among the originators of “the blues, he was born on a farm in Coutchman, Texas, in about 1893.

And, in 1996, the United States, represented by President Clinton, and the world’s other major nuclear powers, including Russia, China, and Great Britain, signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons. The U.S. has yet to formally sign it.

Other events of note in the historical record of this date . . .

In 2015, according to Saudi officials, 769 people died in a stampede during the hajj to Mecca; however, other estimates claim that more than 2,400 were killed, making it one of the deadliest accidents in the pilgrimage's history.

In 1957 federal troops were dispatched to Little Rock, Arkansas, to maintain order and enforce the right of black students to attend the local public high school.

There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. It has a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity. – Mark Twain

All I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75, I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish, and insects. When I am 80, you will see real progress. – Hokusai