Baying at the Moon
It’s the Moon’s day . . . and the heat returns to TulseyTown after a brief respite . . .
Alison Luterman, a fave poet of mine, recently posted an excellent piece online at Rattle. “Mockingbirds” is her metaphor for the not-a-debate debate. I don't usually use the term “must read” on these pages, but this one really does say it all.
Another important read (aren't they all these days?): Joyce Vance details the fraught SCOTUS Chevron decision . . .
Dates:
Diana, princess of Wales was born 63 years ago today in 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk, England.
Yesterday:
Poet Czeslaw Milosz was born in 1911 Szetejnie, Lithuania
And, In 1936, Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind was published.
There was a time when only wise books were read,
helping us to bear our pain and misery.
This, after all, is not quite the same
as leafing through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics.
And yet the world is different from what it seems to be
and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.
. . . The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.
. . . poetry . . . should be written . . . only with the hope
that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.
– Czeslaw Milosz
Copy that, Bayo . . .
If my work is about anything, it is about gesturing towards the miraculous. About meeting the unmet, the unspeakable, the non-legible thing that scoffs at words and yet welcomes the wordsmith to try his craft. – Bayo Akomolafe
Grin and bare it . . .
Its Sol's day . . . after another heat-hammer day in Okieland, but 50/50 chances of thunderstorms are in the forecasts with a cooling break after a Northerly moves through.
Yesterday in 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned down.
Mel Brooks turned 98 Friday. The comedian and filmmaker was born Melvin Kaminsky in 1926 Brooklyn, New York.
And, in 1921, Edith Wharton became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, for her novel The Age of Innocence.
Following up on Thursday's not-a-real-debate debate... Heather Cox Richardson posted her immediate reflection in Letters from an American that outdoes all the current pundit chatter. Short version: Its not time to bail on Biden.
By a 6-3 vote along far right ideological lines, the U. S. SuprChevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of the most cited in American law, underpinning 70 Supreme Court decisions and roughly 17,000 in the lowereme court yesterday swept away a major precedent. The precedent, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, is one of the most cited in American law, underpinning 70 Supreme Court decisions and roughly 17,000 in the lower courts. Critics of regulatory authority immediately hailed the decision, suggesting it could open new avenues to challenge federal rules in areas ranging from abortion pills to the environment. If I read it correctly, the decision basically says that if the traditions of the administrative authority of the executive are to be maintained, Congress has to authorize it, otherwise rules are left to states and judges. IMO, the ideological majority at SCOTUS seems intent on shooting the institution in its remaining survial foot. Prediction: IF we get a blue wave in November, look for changes beginning in January.
No creative writer knows what is commercial and what isn't. You just write from your heart, you write from the deepest, creative urges in you, and you write from your soul, and you just either get lucky or not. – Mel Brooks.
The Way has its way to your house . . .
It's Freya's day . . . and she knows where you live. If you live in TulseyTown, the heat-hammer index is forecast at 113º this afternoon.
Riding The Way of a historic heptathlon win at the NCAA Championships Pippi Lotta Enok, now has the Olympics on her horizon. Pippi is one of my Univ. of Oklahoma's latests schoolfellows.
In contrast, there's lots of flotsam and jetsam in the aftermath of President Biden's apparent attempt to swim against the flow. As an event, the “debate” with Trump turned out to be – how do they say it in the D.C. trenches? – a “nothing burger.” Doubling down on the metaphors: there's likely to be sharks in the water calling for Biden to step down from the Democratic nomination.
Speaking of the Watercourse . . .
While sea levels have risen, many islands haven’t shrunk. Most, in fact, have been stable. Some have even grown.
When we wall ourselves off from our negative feelings and emotions because they don’t feel spiritual, we’re missing out on the richest teachings Zen has to offer. Zen teaches us that enlightenment includes our broken places. Still, opening ourselves up to our broken places is difficult practice. --Tim Burkett, Enlightenment Is an Accident: Ancient Wisdom and Simple Practices to Make You Accident Prone, Shambhala, 2023.
. . . grief isn’t something from which to run. It’s a liminal space, a time of transformation. – Richard Rohr
This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.
This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.
There is no house
like the house of belonging.
– David Whyte
(video and audio of complete text)
(book at Whyte's site)