Caught in the rye . . .

The mailbox this Sol's day opens to a lovely, mild summer morning in Okieland . . .

Life is extraordinary and miraculous. Rather beyond imagining. The world we want will not emerge from electronic speed but from the receptive stillness at our center. If the world seems to be moving too fast, the way forward is found by slowing down.

The Catcher in the Rye was published on this date in 1951. It is J.D. Salinger's only novel Salinger's only novel, and it's one of the most banned books in American history. After its publication, Salinger lived his life as a recluse, avoiding publicity and declining offers from film makers for the story. If you've read it, you know the text is everything. One has to slow down in order to “get it.”

Today is the 78th anniversary of the Trinity Test, in 1945, when the first ever atomic bomb was detonated at White Sands Proving Ground in Alamogordo, New Mexico, starting the nuclear age. The week will also bring us the Christopher Nolan film Oppenheimer about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who helped develop that first nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, nuclear weapons are not an artifact of the past, and their effects are still present for many communities today . . . As is so often the case, the people who have borne the heaviest burden of these activities are often people of color, Indigenous communities, children, and those living in poor, rural communities. Nuclear weapons and the harm they've caused are very much a present-day problem and it's up to us to ensure a better future – (Union of Concerned Scientists email0

Clare of Assisi was born on this date in 1191. The Italian saint was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi.