Wisdom as a guide on The Way
In the Wednesday mailbox . . .Odin was never one to shy away from speaking his wisdom . . .
Mary Oliver's lovely collection of Dog Songs contains a short story about her dog Percy. Percy, it seems, as a new pup, ate a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. Thereafter she referred to him/her as “the wisest of little dogs.”
Sophie Strand asks: “Who is the monster of today's legends?”
. . . let's be clear: This is a story about serving justice and repairing our democracy. Either there's rule of law or there's not. Either we are defined by a system of justice that holds the guilty accountable or we aren't. Either we have a democracy that limits the use of violence to define our public life and the rights of our citizens or we have a country devolving into authoritarianism in which a strongman leader can employ fear and intimidation to get and keep power.
After the exhausting years of Trump—including over 30,000 documented lies, dozens of discernible criminal acts, and a near-daily effort to spur a climate of chaos and a growing appetite for hatred and carnage—this is a moment to declare: We will not be held hostage once again by a tyrannical minority or its leaders that are abusing their power to undermine democracy and democratic institutions, permanently break peoples' belief in justice and the rule of law, and drive a deeper wedge between Americans with grievance and outrage. – Steven Beschloss
From the Gita:
All that we are is a result of what we have thought in the past. All that our future holds will unfold as a result of what we are thinking in each and every present moment-by-moment.
Think fear and violence, you will have both.
Think justice, you will have justice.
Kornbrand with water Bach
In Tew's day's mailbox as March turns even more toward Spring . . .
There is a new, much needed “UN high seas treaty” in the works.
Liberated from the conservatively strangled Trumpite era, the EPA is issuing tighter restrictions on drinking water.
Today is the 338th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's birth. The composer was born on this date in 1685 Eisenach, Germany.
Freedom is awareness not trapped in attraction or aversion. – Ram Dass
Spring sprung relatively speaking . . .
In the mailbox this new-Moon-day in 2023:
Another Spring. At last. Green is beckoned from the grey, although it remains to be seen if my Azaleas have survived this record Winter. Today, I celebrate my birth. Another turn of the eternal wheel of Equinoxes and Solstices. Here and God knows where else. The Earth is tilted on its axis, as am I in most always.
Sharing my birthdate, good company: Each of these good folks and events served to shape me in multiple ways that would fill volumes of distraction. Suffice it that I celebrate their influence, virtues, gifts and continuing presence.
It's the 2066th anniversary of Publius Ovidius Naso's birth. The Roman poet, better known as Ovid, was born on this date in Sulmo, 90 miles east of 43 B.C. Rome; Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was born today in 1828 Skien, Norway; it's the 119th anniversary of behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner's birth in 1904 Susquehanna, Pennsylvania; and Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity on this day in 1916.
Other significant (to me) events (selected) on today's date: Henry V succeeded his father to the throne of England in 1413; in 1841 Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was published, as was Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852; in 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers; and ‘Spike’ Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) was born in 1957 Atlanta Georgia.
It is a great thing to be glad when your friends’ virtues are celebrated. – Teresa of Ávila The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr
In transcending spiritual materialism, there is no goal. The goal exists in every moment of our life situation – Chӧgyam Trungpa