Is there something being added to the water every July 26th?
It's Frey's day . . .
The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.-- Rita Mae Brown
A long list of creatives were born on today's date. I'll leave the linking up to you. Google away.
Writers:
Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) was born in 1894 Surrey, England, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 Dublin, humorist Jean Shepherd (“Ralphie, you'll shoot your eye out”) born in 1925 Chicago, Illinois
Film biz:
Director Stanley Kubrick, born in New York City in 1928, Actors: Helen Mirren in 1945 London, Kevin Stacy in 1959 Orange, N.J. and Sandra Bulloch in 1964 Arlington, Virginia.
Speaking of water:
While the Seine is being filled today with the creative Opening of the Athletes, how about putting the arts back into the Olympics?
A tsunami is brewing in the Watercourse: Rupert Murdoch has moved to change the family’s irrevocable trust to preserve his media businesses as a conservative force. Several of his children are fighting back.
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. – George Bernard Shaw
Some men are Baptists, others Catholics. My father was an Oldsmobile man. — Jean Shepherd.
Do swans dream of rolling stones...?
It's Thor's day …
On The Way of the Watercourse, there is no tyrant who can resist its flow, no oppression that cannot be ended, no hunger that cannot be fed, no wound that cannot be healed, no hatred that cannot be turned to love, no dream that cannot be fulfilled.
More than 350 national security leaders have endorsed Harris for president, noting that if elected president, “she would enter that office with more significant national security experience than the four Presidents prior to President Biden.” – Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American.
The journey to enlightenment involves shedding, not collecting. It’s a continual process of opening and surrender, like taking off layer after layer of clothes, until we’re completely naked with nothing to hide. But we can’t just pretend, making a big display of disrobing, then putting everything back on when no one’s looking. Our surrender has to be genuine. – Pema Chödrön The real letting go-putting back is reserved for the seasons. Best we surrender to these if nothing else.
Speaking of dreams fulfilled:
Patti Smith reads about her first memory of the creative impulse. Posted by Maria Popova on Marginalian.
This evening in 1965, one of the most pivotal moments in the history of rock and roll took place at the Newport Folk Festival. Bob Dylan controversially gave up his acoustic guitar and went electric. The piece was “Like a Rolling Stone” perhaps among the very best poems ever written about the human condition, no doubt contributing to the Nobel committee's Laureate award.
Do you remember the first time you realized you were on your own?
Imagine My Surprise
… the world for one moment
closed its terrifying eyes
in gratitude.
– David Whyte, Fire in the Earth, 1992
The Way's Wake . . .
It's Odin's day . . .
The Lincoln Project has dropped its first ad in support of Kamala Harris, while Trump is running scared.
Women and their allies [thats us fellows, ya'll] need to vote like their lives depend on it this year, because quite literally, they do. – Joyce Vance in Civil Discourse.
Not all transitions are as lovely as a sunrise. The uncertainty of new days ahead is uncomfortable, even frightening to some and will be painful to many. Yet: “Uncertainty, when accepted, sheds a bright light on the power of intention. That is what you can count on: not the outcome, but the motivation you bring, the vision you hold, the compass setting you choose to follow.” – Joanna Macy.
It's high time: Put a woman in charge. — Keb’ Mo’