Sailing into the wind . . .

Sunday, September 14, 2025. It's Sol's day . . . and clouds are in the forecasts for TulseyTown by afternoon. Southerlies are to maintain those upper 90's indices. Rain and cooler temps are indicated by mid-week. The seasonal roller-coaster may be about to retire until Winter. Now, there's a word I've not written in a while.

Prayer is sitting in silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful. – Fr. Richard Rohr

Margaret Sanger was born on this date in 1879, Corning New York. She was the founder of the birth control movement in the U.S. and an international leader in the field. She is credited with originating the term birth control.

Today is the birthday of philosopher and educator Allan Bloom, born in 1930 Indianapolis, Indiana. He's best known as the author of The Closing of the American Mind (1987), about what he believed was the decline of higher education in the United States. Some believe that decline has continued, the result of corporate and organizational/structural constraints. With exceptions, particularly among assorted small colleges. The “publish or perish” philosophy continues its dominance. It is said that “Deans don't read” the books and articles they “count” as evidence of quality instruction. A part of that, of course, is the explosion of knowledge driven by computerizaton and Ai influences. I should take my own advice and “don't get me started.” Suffice it that Bloom had a major influence on my academic career.

Here's your Sunday Morning Wrap Up from Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse.

The ship must know what wind it aims to catch, what star it follows. – Sophie Strand, “Sensorial Stars,” Make Me Good Soil, 9.14.25

Setting Sail Into the Wind

There seems always a sense of “must.”

Like lust, one does 'doing'

as if needful. That said,

One does not “go” to Valhalla.

A word, a metaphor,

is not a place.

An unconditional condition

now as much as when,

always all avenues,

all paths, none must.

All boats arrive

at the same shore.

– jab