Remembering a Q-tip
It's Odin's day . . . another heat-dome is making a brief revisit to Okieland . . .
“We chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone.” – Barach Obama at the DNC convention, recently concluded, prompting Soren to “Look Up.”
Richard Wright was born on this day in 1908. The novelist (Native Son) was born born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi.
Beyoncé turns 43 today. The Grammy Award record holder, 32 times so far in her career, was born in 1981 Houston, Texas.
...nature has been so relentlessly assaulted that it is easy to forget to look at a tree, a sky, a flower emerging in a sea of trash. – bell hooks in today's Meditation from the CAC.
Remembering Charlie Bethel, who would have been 59 yesterday.
Charlie Q-Tip
– composing this poem continues to take a long time.
Thursday, September 03, 2015. Your 50th,
That was the day after you arrived for an extended stay.
An opportunity we never completely embraced
as adult father and son, tho adult
was a bit of misnomer for us both
looking back, tho we indeed tried.
Cousin Judy says, and she should know,
this hollow space in my heart left
when you left too early this world
will never fill. Yet no day goes by
that I fail to recall some
somehow significant triviality.
On the 3rd of 2015 September
you emerged from the shower
inquiring if I had a Q-Tip,
which I did. Nine years and
several boxes later, each day
exiting the shower
I reach for the Q-Tips.
Which may explain,
should it occur,
why, on the day of my last
breath, I ask for
one.
Your death stripped me,
your mother, if I may speak for her,
and many, many whose lives
you touched more than once,
to the bone.
New bone takes time
as do neurons finding new pathways
amid new muscle and tendon
and some mysterious new-found trust —
An orchestration not of our doing,
but of and by a learning
to be.
— jab
Butterfly synchronicity . . .
It's Tiw's day . . . A cloudy, Fall-ish preview underway here in TulseyTown . . .
We [humans] are multi-species choruses disguised as single species, single selves. Instead of the single body, is the journey the Self that holds many versions of a self, different species, phenological expression across generations? Good questions from Sophie Strand.
An update on Trump's plans:
Trump's plan in sharp focus by Heather Cox Richardson in Letters from An American.
Trump's plan continues with its delay, delay, delay tactics with Judge Chutkan. Joyce Vance abbreviates the latest on Civil Discourse.
While all that unfolds, Tim Walz is driving MAGA men nuts — he's living proof that these are the last days of the patriarchy and that their tormented masculinity is yesterday's news.
By the time in the West when the Hellenic world decided to re-write the history of the Stone Age, the Patriarchy was well established from its evolutonary roots in agriculture. So we're looking at a minimum of some 5,000 years (some say 12,000 if you go to Mesopotomia) of presumptive male dominance. Regardless of its anthropological history, patriarchy has never brought all that much good to society. For a bio-anthropo-historio-poetic challenging but worthy take on all this, explore The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Masculine by Sophie Strand. Be aware this is not a text for a speed reader. Ms. Strand demands a deliberate and careful read of the 192 pages, 34 of which are notes which you'll constantly be returning to as you read. The Kindle version, while available, is a difficult format for the demanding text. Besides that, you’ll likely be marking and making marginal notes.
From a post one week ago:
I dreamed I was a butterfly.
Now I do not know if I am a human
who dreamt of being a butterfly,
or a butterfly
dreaming I am a human. ― The Zhuangzi
Star-lit imagination
It's the Moon's day . . . and it is as new as it gets, bringing a star-lit night sky and the first taste of Fall to TulsyTown . . .
Today is the birthday of Guy Laliberté. The Canadian co-founder of Cirque du Soleil was born in 1959 Quebec City. The Cirque will be in Wichita, Kansas this coming February 7th 8th and 9th, 2025 at the Intrust Bank Arena
Today in 1945, U.S. General accepted Japan’s formal surrender bringing a formal end to World War II.
The most useful trait you can train within yourself: to stop seeing failure as a bad thing. – Mark Manson
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett
Robert Thurman, a remote mentor of mine these days, turned 83 a month ago today. Like Bob, nightfall was meaningful to my childhood. Get further acquainted with Tenzin Dr. Bob.
Imagine a culture in which everything is geared toward helping all individuals become the best human beings they can be; in which individuals are driven to devoting their lives to becoming enlightened by the natural flood of compassion for others that arises from their wisdom. – Robert Thurman