Unzipping a silver lining . . .

Sunday, August 24, 2025. It's Sol's day … A cool start to a sunny day in TulseyTown. Easy Northerlies maintain upper 80's and bring clouds this afternoon ahead of a rainy tomorrow.

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. – Samuel Johnson

Like the wind, the Spirit blows where it will … Indigenous peoples had contemplative prayer long before we Franciscans ever appeared. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “An Open Christianity,” Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation.

The poet, essayist, and short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges was born today in 1899 Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a major influence on the novelist Paulo Coelho who turns 78 today. He was born on this same day as Borges but in 1947 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Art history majors are more in demand than computer scientists. And, no, that's neither a typo nor hyperbole. The data was documented and reported by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Sharon Olds published a new poem this morning, proving once again that poets can find insight in anything…

Boxer Aria

When no one’s around, a man could go
all day, in the woods, and down by the lake,
and into the house and back out in the garden,
without zipping his pants.

[...]

the man is free
and unobserved, observing the land
and its creatures, each aware of him,
but not of his costume,
or the partial uncostume of his liberty …

– Sharon Olds. “Boxer Aria,” originally published in Poem-a-Day, by the Academy of American Poets, on August 24, 2025.