… just the facts, ma'am . . .
In Freya's mailbox on this the last day of 2023 March . . .
Yesterday, the former and twice impeached President Donald Trump was formally indicted by a NY grand jury. Under seal, the indictment's particular charges are likely to be revealed later this week. Trump is reported to be turning himself in for arrest and processing in the coming days.
This is a very dangerous moment in Donald Trump's abusive relationship with the American people. When abusers are held accountable for their wrongdoing they often react with great violence. It is not uncommon for the victim to be killed when they tell finally tell their abusers "no!" and then try to leave the relationship. Donald Trump is no different. – Chauncey Devega
All matters of fact are NOT already settled. A “fact” is a human utterance, said or written, claiming to be what we call “reality” expressed such that it can be tested and affirmed or refuted. That “God exists” cannot be tested and thus cannot be a “fact,” but rather is an opinion. Facts can be tested with physical evidence and other facts, particularly those that have been previously tested. That Donald Trump is guilty of crimes is a statement of fact that can be determined by a jury examining the history of his behavior within the rules of law established by our Constitution and legal precedent.
An example of how we deal with facts was demonstrated yesterday when a jury ruled in Gwyneth Paltrow’s favor in a 2016 skiing accident, finding that the man who sued her was at fault.
And, yesterday Finland won final approval to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization . . .The Turkish Parliament cast the last vote needed, marking a major shift in the balance of power between the West and Russia that was set off by the invasion of Ukraine . . . NATO now gains access to a strong military, as well as Finnish airspace, ports and sea lanes.
Today is the 87th anniversary of Marge Piercy's birth. The poet and novelist was born on this day in 1936 Detroit.
It hurts to love wide open . . .
to have and not to hold, to love
with minimized malice, hunger
and anger moment by moment balanced. – Marge Piercy, from “To have without holding,” in her collection The Moon is Always Female (Alfred A. Knopf, 1980).
Innocence
In the mailbox this penultimate day in 2023 March dedicated to Thor . . .
It's the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Anna Sewell. The author of Black Beauty was born on this date in 1820 Yarmouth, England.
Today is the 170th anniversary of the birth of Vincent van Gogh in 1853 Groot-Zundert, Holland.
The innocent mistake that keeps us caught in our own particular style of ignorance, unkindness, and shut-downness is that we are never encouraged to see clearly what is, with gentleness. Instead, there’s a kind of basic misunderstanding that we should try to be better than we already are, that we should try to improve ourselves, that we should try to get away from painful things, and that if we could just learn how to get away from the painful things, then we would be happy. That is the innocent, naïve misunderstanding that we all share, which keeps us unhappy. – Pema Chödrön
To see clearly what is, follow the morning path of mindful loving kindness for all beings and self-compassion.
What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short, the lowest of the low.
All right, then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. – Vincent van Gogh, in one of many letters to his brother Theo.
May woe be gone from our minds . . .
In Odin's mailbox as March in Okieland turns toward the lambing season . . .
Yesterday, the 29th, was the birthday of the author of “A Walk on the Wild Side,” Nelson Algren . Born Nelson Algren Abraham to working-class parents in 1909 Detroit, he grew up in Chicago's immigrant neighborhoods. According to Garrison Keillor, in “Walk” Algren gives his three rules for life: "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own." The novel is, in many ways, about the contempt of a nation for its dispossessed, and in it he wrote: "When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don't have enough." His novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the the first National Book Award (1949).
Speaking of Keillor: The man with uncanny insight into the people of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning this week.
A well-known problem with general relativity is that in the theory one cannot always unambiguously define gravitational energy in a way that applies to the universe as a whole. Thus, the total energy of the universe is neither conserved nor lost—it is just undefinable. – Tamara M. Davis
I take that to mean that the first law of thermodynamics is a law because it is dependent upon measurment. Since infinity by definition is beyond measurement, so would be any application of the law to any speculation regarding the nature of reality beyond living forms, e.g. after death. Energy in that speculation would be more like breathing: created and destroyed continually, just like the cells in our body, the photon exchanges in our brains, where consciousness ceases to be a noun and becomes, instead, a verb. Of course, I could be wrong.
Going Cheerfully Out of Our Minds
Hypotheses:
Periodically, we benefit from going cheerfully and enthusiastically out of our minds. It's healthy if one part of us remains forever untamed, uncategorizable, and unsubjugated by routine.
We express compassion for ourselves by staying intimately connected to all that's inexplicable and mysterious about our lives. – Rob Brezsney
While a certain decorum is required as we attempt to maintain something that looks like discipline to the hurly-burley, it might do us well to remember that chaos has an order and harmony all its own.