James Bethel James Bethel

You're innocent when you dream

It's the Moon's day . . . a foggy day in TulseyTown. Northerlies return while I catch up with the mail...

Things that exist are imperfect. Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in that imperfection is perfect reality....the true nature of all things cannot be grasped by the intellect or understood by words. It can only be experienced directly, in the present moment. – Dogen

Joyce Vance's The Week Ahead.

The future of Syria is entirely unclear...The fall of Syria – a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime – offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.

You may want to prepare yourself for the coming Trump administration by rereading George Orwell’s “1984” if it’s been a while. – Joyce Vance in Civil Discourse.

Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch? - Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.

Tom Waits turned 75 back on Saturday. The singer-songwriter and actor was born in 1949 Pomona California. In spite of the fact that Waits' music is uncategorisable, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Check out Neil Young's introduction and Waits acceptance at that event.

A taste of Tom Waits: Suggest you do these in order.

 Looking for the heart of Saturday night.

A song of hope and wisdom

You're innocent when you dream.

Your goal is not to find love, but to remove all barriers which are preventing you from receiving it. – Rumi

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James Bethel James Bethel

Listening to the river . . .

It's the Satyr's day . . . the weather in Okieland drives some into the bat cave, what with its ups and downs, warmth and cold. Forecasts indicate the next ten days are in the “ups”

“The mathematician goes mad building his bridge across the infinite. The poet is content to swim the sea.” – G.K. Chesterton

The assassination Wednesday of the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare seems to be a cultural moment in which popular fury exploded.over the power big business has over ordinary Americans’ lives. – Heather Cox Richardson in Letters From An American.

Speaking of cultural moments... Today is the 83rd anniversary of the first day of infamy suffered by the United States of America. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor all but destroyed the entire Naval Fleet and set the stage for World War II.

Noam Chomsky turns 96 today. The theoretical linguist revolutionized the field of linguistics and related fields, including cognitive psychology and the philosophies of mind and language. He was born in 1928, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At the River Clarion

… sitting in the river named Clarion

on a water splashed stone

all afternoon listening to the voice

of the river talking.

… you don't hear such voices

in an hour or day,

you don't hear them at all

if selfhood has stuffed your ears.

… I don't know how you get to suspect

such an idea. I only know

that the river kept singing.

– Mary Oliver, “At the River Clarion,” Evidence, Beacon Press, 2009

Listen to the entire poem read by Bianca Lorage

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James Bethel James Bethel

Take a few...five/four will do

It's Freya's (Frigg's) day . . . and here in TulseyTown, the rollercoaster toward Winter Solstice continues with a warming trend after a frigid morning . . .

[E]very time we are drawn to look up into the night sky and reflect on the awesome beauty of the universe, we are actually the universe reflecting on itself. And this changes everything. – Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Journey of the Universe. Yale University Press, 2011. Cited in Meditations from The Center for Action and Contemplation.

Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas.

And, It's the birth date of Dave Brubeck. The classical and jazz pianist was born in 1920, Concord, California,

So know this about yourself. You are a being of light. You may look like a person … with a certain this, that, or the other hue, or gender with a name, but all of that is surface, and underneath you are infinite. You are a being of infinite possibility. – Ani DiFranco. Catch the singer/songwriter/poet/performance artist in Conversations, Rattle, Fall 2024.

Take a few...five/four will do.

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