You can't always get what you want . . .
Wednesday, June 25, 2025. It's Odin's day . . . Moderate Southerlies are in the forecasts bringing a few clouds and the slightest of rain chances to the afternoon. The Moon is new. Hiding from the heat? As it begins its waxing cycle this weekend, forecasts indicate good rain chances as the high pressure heat dome begins to wane.
Burying the lede: It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health. – Heather Cox Richardson in yesterday's Letters From An American.
Anne Frank's diary was published on this day in 1947.
Today is the birth date of George Orwell. The author of 1984 was born Eric Blair in a small village in 1903 Bengal, India. 1984 has been translated into 62 languages and sold more than 10 million copies.
Two pieces posted in the past two days by Robert Reich seemed to me to be extraordinarily worthwhile … So here they are:
Perhaps the most important message for these times from someone who wasn't Liz Cheny.
A conversation with a group of students, friends and colleagues on the occasion of Robert's 79th birthday.
Sailor, Home from the See
Nobody told us
how to navigate the watercourse way,
that waking up anyplace we woke up
was an OK place to be –
at least for that one instant
before the current carried us
to where we are right now
reading this.
– jab
Chasing the extraordinary . . .
Tuesday, June 24, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . Moderate Southerlies are forecasted to bring a few clouds to TulseyTown today. Still hot this afternoon.
“Joy comes to us in moments—ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.” ~Brené Brown
I find people are either deeply engaged in the news these days and stay totally tuned in, or they are totally tuned out. – Maria Shriver, “Peace Begins With You” The Sunday Paper.
If you're one of those who are engaged, here's the latest from Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse.
The first widely reported UFO sighting in the U.S. occurred today in 1947 over the Cascade mountains of Washington state.
The Puritans were the first to record strange shining lights in American skies.
Extraordinarily Ordinary
Seemingly adrift in The Watercourse Way,
each and all, the ordinary and extraordinary:
infused with mysteries. We are ordinary mystics.
What distinguishes us is awareness amid
encounters with moments, with epiphanies,
in silence, a song, a line in a poem, or conversation.
Such moments are not confined by the dramas of relationships,
rituals, nor the majesty of nature and its vistas. Once experienced,
we are changed—expanded.
Recall: the first moment you were actually
riding that bike, when the kite actually flew,
surviving the fall, waking after the operation.
The view of the world through the lenses of
your first eyeglasses, the first time you thought
“this must be love,” the first time your heart
was broken – and the second; then there's
witnessing the birth or first step of a child,
the rising of the Harvest Moon
and it's blood-red eclipse, the Aurora Borealis;
a caring –even “accidental” – touch.
These differences collapse
into singular, undifferentiated experience.
There are no words here.The silent vista
of the Grand Canyon cannot be embraced
by the words “awe” and “thankful,” even while being
filled with a gratitude the dimensions of which
we were not previously aware we possessed.
— jab
Not all dreams are nightmares . . .
Monday, June 23, 2025 , It's the Moon's day . . .Morning in TulseyTown, as I build the blog for today, is surprisingly mild. The weatherfeather indicates afternoon heat indices in the upper 90's with moderate Southerlies.
Shakespeare set his play A Midsummer Night's Dream on this night. Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve, also called St. John's Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It's a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make mead, and that's where the word "honeymoon" comes from. It is a time for lovers. An old Swedish proverb says, "Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking. – Garrison Keillor made note of it in his repost for this date.
"The course of true love never did run smooth.” - Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 1
The less people know and the worse off they are, the more certain they are of their decisions and their opinions. And the more people know and the smarter they are, the more uncertain. It's easier to be certain when you don't know very much. – Dr. Kelly McGonigal
The more Trump asserts his certainty, which is all the time, the more he reveals how much he doesn't know. The dude hasn't a clue and is no doubt internally grasping at straws, believing the last thing handed to him by someone he trusts simply because they never disagree with him. To disagree with him is to challenge his certainty, and that is his Achilles heel.
Trump administration officials are already walking back Trump’s boast of “complete and total obliteration.” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said it was “way too early” to assess the amount of damage. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said that “no one, no one, neither us, nobody else, could be able to tell you how much it has been damaged.” – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
A single person — Donald J. Trump — has released the dogs of war on one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and done it without the consent of Congress, our allies, or even a clear explanation to the American people. Anyone who has doubted Trump’s intention to replace American democracy with a dictatorship should now be fully disabused. – Robert Reich, “The Dogs of War.”
Trump's power trip is a danger to the world and not just American democracy. He is an American Hitler. Perhaps it’s worth reminding ourselves: Our democracy has a flaw and we must fix it.
The Week Ahead – Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse.
Spekin of war: Today is the 711th anniversary of the “Battle of Bannockburn.” Ifn ya got inny Scot blud in ya y'allredy new. If not, ye shud.
Compassion is that which hears the suffering of others. In fearful conditions, our own noise can drown that out. Wisdom is in part a recognition of our interdependence; fear can hide that from us. – Sallie Tisdale, “Alone on the Bodhisattva Path,” Tricycle, 4.6.20.
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream . . .
— Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act V, Scene 1
A dream unto itself: The Mendelssohn Overture