In the face of absurdity . . .
Tuesday, September 9, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . and the weatherfeather indicates a warming week settling into TulsyTown with moderate Southerlies and sunny skies. Today in the mid 80's. 90's return Thursday.
Robert Reich asks and answers: Should democrats shut down the government?
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy was born on this day in 1828 on his family's estate in the province of Tula, near Moscow.
It's Paul Goodman's birthday. The author of Growing Up Absurd was born in 1911 Greenwich Village in New York City.
“It then becomes necessary to stop short and make a choice: Either/Or. Either one drifts with their absurd system of ideas, believing that this is the human community. Or one dissents totally from their system of ideas and stands as a lonely human being. (But luckily one notices that the others are in the same crisis and making the same choices.)” – Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd, Vintage, 1960.
And it's the birthday of Otis Redding. The soul singer whose life was way too short was born in 1941, Dawson, Georgia.
The new world . . .
Monday, September 8, 2025, It's the Moon's day . . . and the full Corn Moon begins to wane toward the Harvest, a month away. Moderate Southerlies are forecasted to bring a near repeat of yesterday's conditions to TulseyTown today. Mixed sun and clouds with low 80's. A week's worth of 90's begins Thursday.
It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have a whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you. – John O'donohue.
The Week Ahead from Joyce Vance in Civil Discourse today.
Trump is panicking and exhibiting a new level of unhinged. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
The American Dictator – Joyce Vance in Civil Discourse posted yesterday.
Enduring structures of “power over,” like patriarchy, white supremacy, and unfettered capitalism, have limited most individuals’ power for so long that it’s difficult to imagine another way. Only very gradually does human consciousness come to a selfless use of power, the sharing of power, or even [its] benevolent use. – Fr. Richard Rohr, Meditations, The Center for Action and Meditation.
The Constitution needs defending. Calls for an Article V convention are gaining ground and must be stopped. I don't want to presume you don't know about this threat to our democracy. But if this is an issue about which you have questions, check out the issues at Common Cause.
Today is the birth date of Peter Sellers. The British comedic/character actor and Academy Award laureate was born in 1925, Southsea, England.
Bernie Sanders turns 84 today. The Senator from Vermont was born in 1941, Brooklyn, New York.
And. Composer Antonín Dvořák was born on this date in 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia, Austrian Empire [now in Czech Republic].
"You don't have to say anything. You don't have to teach anything. You just have to be who you are: a bright flame shining in the darkness of despair, a shining example of a person able to cross bridges by opening your heart and mind" — Tsoknyi Rinpoche, in Open Heart, Open Mind, Harmony Publishers, 2012.
In every moment, a new world.
True love has its ways . . .
Sunday, September 7, 2025. It's Sol's day . . . Moderate Easterlies bring a lovely mix of sun and clouds with low 80's afternoon in Tulsey Town today, so says the weatherfeather which also predicts the last of the season's 90's this week. As is the custom: We shall see. The moon is full – the “blood” corn moon – and will be eclipsed South of the Equator.
Why do people keep asking to see
God's identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?
– Mary Oliver, “I Wake Close To Morning,” from Felcity, Penguin Press. 2015.
To be an Atheist … is to me personally almost an essential of religious life. – Jane Ellison Harrison, “The Forgotten Visionary,” in Maria Popova's Marginalian, 9.7.25.
Today is the birthday of Grandma Moses – born Anna Robertson – in 1860, Greenwich, New York. Her paintings of American rural folk life in the late 19th and early 20th Century gained international recognition.
And it’s the birthdate of film director, playwright, and author Elia Kazan, born in 1909 Istanbul, Turkey.
Robert Reich's Sunday Thought: He's loosing bigly.
Singer and songwriter "Buddy" Holly was born today in 1936 Lubbock, Texas. His untimely death prompted the anthem American Pie with its refrain “the day the music died.”