Courage. . .
In the Easter 2023 mailbox …
Today in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.
For over 3,000 years and even today there are people who prefer fear and hate over love and peace and who are focused on burning books, erasing minds, destroying culture:
Libraries go back to a time when their contents were inscribed in cuneiform on tablets of baked clay. . .Those institutions aren’t just artifacts of civilization; they are its defining elements. . . .Republicans are using their culture war issues as a lever toward something that’s an even bigger plum for their regressive pie. Because let’s be clear about it: Republicans don’t actually give a damn about drag shows. They don’t care one flying f**k about whether schools have a book about two male penguins caring for a chick. . . . What they care about is how they can use these issues to enrage the public and to attack public institutions. It’s not about banning specific books, or limiting the content of certain classes. It’s about limiting the channels through which knowledge is transmitted to ones where Republicans can exert explicit, overt control. – Mark Sumner
Today is Easter in the Christian tradition. There are many who greet the occasion without a clue as to what the event really means. “There’s a World of Difference between ‘Christ’ and the Greek ‘Christos’ “ – Dr. B. Brandon Scott FYI: the good Dr. B. Brandon Scott is one of my TulseyTown home boys.
Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more. – Rita Dove
Silence Speaks
In the Satyr’s day’s mailbox . . .
Language is as difficult to control as any animal found in the deep, wild woods. – Willie James King
New institutions that enable nuanced solutions by encouraging negotiation and compromise in the broader civil society are screaming to be born. – Nathan Gardels
The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. – Rumi
What name does the fire give to flame?
What burns through existence to endlessness?
We are not here long enough to believe in anything but language,
and yet we know what awaits us is silence – Dean Rader, from Before the Borderless
When the animals come
When the animals come to us
asking for our help,
will we know what they are saying?
When the plants speak to us
in their delicate, beautiful language,
will we be able to answer them?
When the planet herself
sings to us in our dreams,
will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?
– Gary Lawless, First Sight of Land. © Blackberry Books, 1990
How do vampires get wet?
In the mailbox this 7th day – named after Freya – in 2023 April.
Moored in harbor, great ships are assumed to be quite safe. That, however, is not what great ships are for.
Today is the 253rd anniversary of William Wordsworth. The English poet laureate was born on this date in 1770 Cumberland, in the Lake District of Northwestern England.
Francis Ford Coppola was born on this date in Detroit 1939. Raised in New York City, he is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or and a British Academy Film Award. Horror film director Roger Corman put up the cash for Coppola's first film, Dementia 13, a low-budget horror flick. Among his films – The Godfather trilogy, Apocalyps Now, and Dracula – are considered among the greats. A child-hood victim/survivor of polio, he – like Steven Spielberg – entertained himself making 8mm movies. After a 7-year directing haitus, his latest film – Megalopolis – wrapped at the end of March this year. He and his family also own and run a winery in California.
Many questions are premised on a separation that does not exist.
The heartbeat of humans and the flowering of plants are one life.
“Alone” is not an option…
Union is a watery way.
In an eye, that point of light.
In the chest, the soul.
The place where ecstactic lovers go
is called the tavern, where everyone gambles
...the master who teaches us
is absolute light, not this visibility. – Rumi