Just making it all up . . .
It's the Satyr's day …
and it's the birthday of Vincent van Gogh, born in 1853 Zundert, Holland.
Several others share today's date:
Warren Beatty turns 87 today. He was born in 1937 Richmond, Virginia
The English song writer, singer and master guitar player Eric Clapton is 79 today, born 1945, Ripley, Surrey, England
Céline Dion was born on this day in 1968, Charlemagne, Quebec, Canada. The popular culture diva/singer (and apparently pilot) is celebrating her 56 th.
Another solo artist sharing today's date of birth is singer Norah Jones who is 45 today, born 1979, New York City.
"I have a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion. Then I go out and paint the stars." – Vincent van Gogh
We need better metaphors: e.g. The cell is not a factory; the mind is not a mess; the future is not dark (nor dim, nor light); you can't get to hell in a handbasket. Organized Christianity is not the only, nor necessarily the best, metaphor to lead us into enlightenment.
Religious or not, we do not know what we are doing.
We are beings, just being. The rest we make up.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life
who all have their tribes, their families,
their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems. – Joy Harjo
Blowin' in the Wind . . .
It's Freya's day … a beautiful Spring day in OkieLand, with really strong Southerlies ahead of late Easter storms.
… and, speaking of Easter, today is “Good Friday” in the Western Christian tradition. Why Freya’s day? Who knows…
Today in 1973, American troops evacuated Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) as the United States ended its involvement in the Vietnam War. And, in 1974, farmers drilling a well near Xi'an, China, found a subterranean chamber that led to the discovery of the terra-cotta army, 8,000 life-size terra-cotta soldiers and horses in the tomb of China’s first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
After being burned by religion . . .the violent and vengeful world we live in has been legitimized by religion. – Matthias Roberts, Holy Runaways: Rediscovering Faith after Being Burned by Religion. Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023 writing in Meditations: A Painful Pattern, 3.24.2024
The word profane comes from the Latin words pro (“in front of”) and fanum (“temple”) . . . Without a nature-based spirituality, it is a profane universe we occupy, bereft of Spirit. We keep building shrines and churches to capture and hold the domesticated and tamed God-in-a box. Soon we don't know where to look for the divine, making [Creation's] presence so limited. We become like fish swimming around looking for water, arguing about who owns the water we're searching for. Hardly a “victorious” theology. – Fr. Richard Rohr
One who is devoted to helping others, is firmly rooted in the traditions of their society. They do not feel obligated to follow those traditions. They are not afraid to take a new step, but the reason they can step out of the tradition is because they know it so well. First we must step into tradition to understand it fully. We must understand what wisdom, if any, lies behind the dogma. Then we can step out of it, not necessarily safely, but sanely. – Chögyam Trungpa (adapted), in The Myth of Freedom, Shambhala, 2002.
What you wish for will have positive, as well as negative consequences
way beyond your imagination with future effects
rippling into an infinity without erasing anything in the past.
The glistening possible . . .
It's a cloudy, cold and windy Tew's day here in TulseyTown . . .we may get to view the full “Crow” or “Worm” Moon tonight rising after 9 p.m. Meanstwhilst, the mailbox is full of poetry . . .
Today is the 150th anniversary of Robert Frost's birth. The poet, and 4 time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, was born on this date in 1874 San Francisco
It's Joseph Campbell's birth date. The author of “A Hero's Journey” was born today in 1904, New York City.
One of the leading poets of the Beat movement, Gregory Corso, was born on this day in 1930, also in New York City.
The poet and classical scholar A.E. (Alfred Edward) Housman was born on this date in 1859 Fockbury, Worcestershire, England.
And, Tennessee Williams was born today in 1911 Columbus, Mississippi
“Poetry gives us resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating. It resounds inside of you. It evokes and calls forth a deeper self.” –Richard Rohr
Being a successful poet is a lot like being a successful mushroom. – Richard Howard. If anything deserves to be famous, it's mushrooms – how necessary they are to life on earth. If someone gave me the choice to be famous or necessary, I'd pick necessary. I want to be like oxygen, denim, or salt. Or mushrooms. – Adrian Matejka, “Editor's Note,” Poetry, April 2024.
As we approach the Easter celebrations of renewal, thoughts turn to hope.
Entanglement
No one can explain it. The strange charm.
Has an electron never refused
the invitation to change direction,
sent in no knowable envelope, with no knowable ring?
… a single un-green electron
waits the width of a world for some weightless message
sent into the din of existence for it alone.
You are there. I am here. I remember.
– Jane Hirshfield, “Entanglement,” The Beauty (Knopf, 2015).