Cribbing from Rilke . . .
Tuesday, August 26, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . The weatherfeather indicates a cloudy day for TulseyTown. Moderate Easterlies, low 80's and a slight rain chance. More rain indicated tomorrow and Thursday. The Fall transition continues.
Have patience with everything that is unsolved in your heart and try to cherish the questions themselves. – Rilke
More than 70 years of struggle by the suffragist movement ended today in 1920 as the 19th Amendment was formally incorporated into the U.S. Constitution. It proclaims "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
Today is the birth date of Peggy Guggenheim. The modern art collector and memoirist was born in 1898 New York City. “Fight all day, sex all night...” – attributed (anon.) to Peggy Guggenheim.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? – Mary Oliver
… no one cares or bothers
to read anymore those soto voce
below-radar flights from the empirical.
“So why do you write poems?”
the stewardess asked. “I guess
it's because every angel is terrible,
still though, alas, I daily invoke these
almost deadly birds of the soul.”
And I cribbed that from Rilke.
— Jim Harrison, from The Theory and Practice of Rivers, first ed. Winn Books, 1985; reissued by Copper Canyon Press, 2025. This selection from “The Essential Poems,” Copper Canyon Press, 2019.
Worried crazy in the shadow . . .
Monday, August 25, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . and moderate Northerlies bring rain to TulseyTown, on/off/on into tonight, flushing away what's left of the heat dome of the Summer, making way for a lovely Fall to come. This morning's 70º is the forecasted high for the day.
The happiest life is a busy solitude. – Voltaire
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem
Today is the birthdate of Leonard Bernstein, The conductor and composer was born in 1918 Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Other birthdays today
Sean Connery, in 1930 Edinburg, Scotland.
Tim Burton is 67 today. 1958 Burbank, California.
and Elvis Costello turns 71, born on this day in 1954 London, England.
There's tension in the White House, according to Heather Cox Richardson in Letters From American, posted this morning.
Joyce Vance anticipates The Week Ahead in Civil Discourse.
Living in the Shadow of the American Dream – Robert Reich, “Voices of Americans,” posted today.
Husband and wife Elvis Costello and Diana Krall, worry themselves Crazy with Willie Nelson.
Unzipping a silver lining . . .
Sunday, August 24, 2025. It's Sol's day … A cool start to a sunny day in TulseyTown. Easy Northerlies maintain upper 80's and bring clouds this afternoon ahead of a rainy tomorrow.
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. – Samuel Johnson
Like the wind, the Spirit blows where it will … Indigenous peoples had contemplative prayer long before we Franciscans ever appeared. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “An Open Christianity,” Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation.
The poet, essayist, and short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges was born today in 1899 Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a major influence on the novelist Paulo Coelho who turns 78 today. He was born on this same day as Borges but in 1947 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Art history majors are more in demand than computer scientists. And, no, that's neither a typo nor hyperbole. The data was documented and reported by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Sharon Olds published a new poem this morning, proving once again that poets can find insight in anything…
Boxer Aria
When no one’s around, a man could go
all day, in the woods, and down by the lake,
and into the house and back out in the garden,
without zipping his pants.
[...]
the man is free
and unobserved, observing the land
and its creatures, each aware of him,
but not of his costume,
or the partial uncostume of his liberty …
– Sharon Olds. “Boxer Aria,” originally published in Poem-a-Day, by the Academy of American Poets, on August 24, 2025.