Sailing with angels . . .
It's Tew's day and I'm wondering where the lions are.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on this date in 1582.
Today is the 266th anniversary of William Blake's birth. The poet and artist was born on this date in 1757 London.
Factory or farm, individuals needed a sense of belonging in their work, a conversation with something larger than themselves, a felt participation, and a touch of spiritual fulfillment and the mysterious generative nature of that fulfillment. [William] Blake might have said that they needed a conversation with the angels. Earning and providing were all very well, but once the basics were met, human beings naturally turned their inward and outward eyes to greater horizons. – David Whyte, from Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, Riverhead Books; Reprint edition (April 2, 2002) .
And, It's the 80th birthday of Randy Newman. The singer, songwriter, composer was born on this day in Los Angeles. His early solo career was notable for effective irony. These days Mr. Newman is a composer of Academy Award and Grammy winning scores and songs for motion pictures, most notably for the Pixar animations.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
. . . Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
– William Blake
When the absurd makes sense
It's the Moon's day … now beginning its waning presence on this morning's Western horizon …
Lots of birthdays in the mailbox …
Today's musicians:
Violinist Hilary Hahn was born on this day in 1979 Lexington, Virginia and its the birth date of Jimi Hendrix in 1942 Seattle, Washington.
Film notarieties included the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director – Kathryn Bigelow – born today in 1951 San Carlos, California; and actor Bruce Lee was born in 1940, San Francisco.
Yesterday's birthdays included the “Queen of Rock ‘n Roll” Tina Turner in 1939, Brownsville, Tennessee; cartoonist Charles Schulz in 1922, Minneapolis; and Eugène Ionesco, playwright and developer of Theatre of the Absurd in 1909, Slatina, Romania (I played in Ionesco’s Rhinoceros back in the ‘60’s at Tulsa University Theatre. Beaumont Bruestle directing).
According to Garrison Keillor, 237 years ago today Scottish poet Robert Burns borrowed a pony and made his way from his home in Ayrshire to the city of 1786 Edinburgh. Check the link and scroll down to mid page ...
And last, but by no means least, Casablanca, opened in theatres yesterday in 1942.
Love Unrequited
It’s a full moon Sunday...and it's downright cold in TulseyTown . . .
This is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges, having laid up sufficient food stores for the long winter ahead, hence: The Beaver Moon. It's also called called the Frost Moon by the Cree and Assiniboine peoples and the Freezing Moon by the Anishinaabe.
A force to be reckoned with: Heather Cox Richardson posted an update.
We live in a plurivurse that has created comets and supernovas and whale songs and complex nervous systems. There’s no limit to what is possible and what we can create. There’s no limit to the love and goodness we can bring into the world, or the joy that we can live in our own lives. We have so many more options available to us, if we listen. We have so much beauty available to us, if we’re willing to create it. – Amanda Yates Garcia
Unrequited love is the love human beings experience most of the time. The very need to be fully requited may be to turn from the possibilities of love itself. Men and women have always had difficulty with the way a love returned hardly ever resembles a love given, but unrequited love may be the form that love mostly takes; for what affection is ever returned over time in the same measure or quality with which it is given? … And whom could we know so well and so intimately through all the twists and turns of a given life that we could show them exactly, the continuous and appropriate form of affection they need? . . . The hope for unconditional love is the hope for a different life than the one we have been given. . . The true signature and perhaps even the miracle of human love is helplessness, and all the more miraculous because it is a helplessness which we wittingly or unwittingly choose; in our love of a child, a partner, a work, or a road we have to take against the odds. – David Whyte, in Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words. Many Rivers Press; Revised edition, 2021.
These are not mindful times, they are heartful times – Mirabai Starr in Caravan of No Despair. Sounds True, 2015. Also available as an audio book.
The Way is unconditional, containing all conditions.