Amazingnesses

It's Sol's day . . . The Fall transition is fully under way this week in Okieland...

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

Heather Cox Richardson's Saturday update in Letters from An American focused on Elon Musk's attempt at gaining control of the Republican Party.

The poet Sylvia Plath was born on this date in 1932, Boston, Massachusetts,

John Cleese turns 85 today. The British actor/comedian was born in 1939, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England.

In 2014 Taylor Swift released 1989, which she described as her first “official pop album.” It was a blockbuster hit and won the Grammy Award for album of the year. On the same date in 2023 she released 1989 (Taylor's Version), a rerecording of the original in order to reclaim her copywrite.

There is no such thing as being nonpolitical. Everything we say or do either affirms or critiques the status quo. Even to say nothing is to say something: The status quo—even if it is massively unjust and deceitful—is apparently okay. This “nonpolitical” stance is an illusion we must overcome. – Fr. Richard Rohr in Meditations at The Center for Action and Contemplation.

i thank You God for most this amazing

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

– e.e.cummings, “I thank You God for most this amazing,” XAIPE, Oxford University Press, 1950.

Thinking about changing the world ...

It's the Satyr's day . . .

When no one is watching – dance. An invitation.

139 years ago today the Erie Canal formally opened in 1885, connecting Buffalo, New York, with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River.

The first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic from Britain to North America, Beryl Markham, was born on this date in 1902. The pioneer aviator was also a horse trainer, and bush pilot in Kenya.

The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow and delayed returns with one crew member hospitalized after a return yesterday.

Joyce Vance has posted a heads-up perspective on election litigation on her blog Civil Discourse.

Computers don't actually “do” anything, let alone think.

We can improve the texture of the mind by influencing the kind of thoughts we tend to think. When you observe thoughts that diminish the qualities you appreciate, abandon those thoughts and give a thought or two to something virtuous, respectable, joyful—perhaps a thought of kindness. – Shaila Catherine

“We happy few...”

It's Frig's (Freya's) day … and Northerlies are seeing to it that Fall is falling in TulseyTown today...

Clouds come out of the sky, rest in the sky, and dissolve back into the sky. In the same way, all the experiences of ordinary life and transcendent states appear out of the primordial.

Anne Tyler turns 83 today. The prolific novelist was born in 1941 Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Katy Perry turns 40 today. The pop music icon was born in 1984 Santa Barbara, California.

Pablo Picasso was born on this day in 1881, Málaga, Spain

And, 609 years ago today in 1415 the 600 man army of British King Henry V defeated the 20,000 French at the Battle of Agincourt. The victory was on St. Crispin's Day and is the feast day of the Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, twins who were martyred c. 286. The event was immortalized in Shakespeare's play, Henry V, with the St. Crispin's Day Speech, also known as the “Band of Brothers.”

Every moment is the universe at its zenith and the moment of its creation. Live according to this richer state of being here, now, and it welcomes you. It’s our true home. – Susan Murphy