It's a wonderment!

It's Freya's day … and the summertime weather pattern is emerging with warm/hot days, mild nights, variable but usually Southerlies, and 10-20% rain chances. Today is no exception.

Today in 1954, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. That landmark decision declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Heather Cox Richardson posted an insightful overview.

It's the 158th anniversary of Erik Satie's birth. The composer (among my faves) was born today in 1866, Honfleur, Calvados, France.

Maintain yourself in the flow. Virtuous behavior is not about doing “good” because we feel we’re “bad” and need to shape up. Instead of guilt or dogma, how we choose to act can be guided by wisdom and kindness. Seen in this light, our question then boils down to “What awakens my heart, and what blocks that process from happening?” – Pema Chödrön

Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. – Stephan Hawking

Preposterous probability . . .

It's Odin's day … and TulseyTown awaits Thor's thunderstorms . . .

Today is the 138th anniversary of Emily Dickinson's death in 1886, Amherst, Massachusetts

Alice Munro, the revered Canadian author, died yesterday at 92.

Katherine Anne Porter was born 130 years ago today. The novelist was born on this date in 1890 Indian Creek, Texas.

It's the birthday of Frank Baum. The author of The Wizard of Oz was born today in 1856 Chittenango, New York

The map has never been the territory . . .

The multipath, machine learning genius, Dr. Joy Buolamwini revealed AI's bias in a talk at SXSW Austin this past March.

Recent scholarship has mainstreamed notions that years ago may have seemed preposterous: that plants communicate, signal, sense, and cooperate in ways previously unimaginable. But are they sentient?

Science may open the door to wonder, but cannot walk through it into mindfulness. The reason for such a limit is, perhaps, not obvious. Science is wholly focused on the dualities of language and phenonema predefined as matter. Mind and wonder, while nameable, are in their experience non-dual, unified, substantive and ephemeral at the same time. While scientists do wonder, they are prone to strangle it with two-sided measuring tape. The plant-sentience article and AI discussion above provide prime examples. Clearly, sentience has something to do with what is termed “consciousness” which in quantum terms is arguably another name for the Universe. Sailors figured out shortly after there were sails that “the map is not the territory.” Science does have one saving grace: probability. Always expressed as “ p> .01 ” — the “1” after the point “0” signifies the error potential in every mathematical measurement utilized to support an ontological statement. Probability allows for the “Black Swan,” and that the wind never blows in only one direction in any given moment. Of course, I could be wrong.

Untying hope . . .

It's Tew's day . . . and our great mistake is that we tie hope to outcome. – Cynthia Bourgeault

Hope givers …

Cate Blanchett turns 55 today. The Australian actor was born in 1969, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

David Byrne was born 72 years ago today in 1952 . The singer/songwriter/musician, poet, actor, director, producer was born in Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He stopped making sense and thereby made sense for us.

And, today in 1944 George Lucas was born in 1944, Modesto, California. A a pioneer of the modern blockbuster movie, at the age of 80 he is still considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and despite this, remains an independent filmmaker, while one of the few billionaires in the industry.

In 1804 Lewis and Clark departed on their journey into an unknown but speculative future.

We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time. —T. S. Eliot, The Four Quartets.

Home is where the heart is.

“The practice of spirituality is a way of looking at a world where you're not alone.” — Rick Rubin

My Great-Aunt Tommie, bless her now departed but insightful, aphoristic view of the world, was fond of saying “The biggest problem of people is that each one of them can't see the forest because all the can see is the tree.”

In that moment of inward breath, that pause and awareness of “how beautiful this is” is a moment in which we become one with it.

Hope is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

– Emily Dickenson https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson