James Bethel James Bethel

Big Bird in the trees . . .

Sunday, October 5, 2025. It's Sol's day . . . and two more days of near 90's are in the TulseyTown forecasts including bright sunshine and moderate Southeasterlies.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) went on the air today in 1970.

Kate Winslet celebrates her 50th today. The multi award lareate actor was born in1975, Reading, Berkshire, England.

The national trauma. – Robert Reich, Sunday Thought, online 10.5.25.

Religion cannot work from a calculator without losing its very method, mind, foundation, and source. – Fr. Richard Rohr, Meditation, The Center for Action and Contemplation, 10.5.25.

The trees! In the trees!

for Vincent...and Kate

What moulting is to birds, humans experience

hard times. This period of moulting can

last a good while, even beyond

recoverable.

Not to be done in public, this

rarely lends to cheerful entertainment

or socially appropriate

smiles.

It is possible to emerge renewed

but between then and then it's rather

a matter of making oneself

scarce.

I've taken VanGogh's path to an active

melancholy rebelling against the fork at yesterday's road

signpost that read “This way to stagnant

despair.”

While there may be clouds this morning

and the weatherfeather always sees more rain

methinks East winds blow hope and aspiration

into browning leaves.

– jab

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James Bethel James Bethel

Vampire at the cosmic bar . . .

Saturday, October 4, 2025. It's the Satyr's day . . . Forecasts indicate moderate Southeasterlies to continue warming TulseyTown today, in the upper 80's. The ten-day promises dry cooler conditions.

The list of creatives' birthdate notices in today’s mailbox was a long one …

The prolific and often humorist writer Roy Blount Jr. turns 84 today. He was born in 1941 Indianapolis.

Actor Susan Sarandon is 79 today. The AcademyAward laureate was born in 1946 New York City.

Also on the list: Buster Keaton and Charlton Heston,

And, the author of Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice, was born in 1941, New Orleans, Louisian.

Speaking of which, Rice's vampire saga has been adapted to film and presently into a critically acclaimed tv series (by AMC) and now running on Netflix, if you are so inclined.

And, On this day in 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite inaugurating the space age, and heightened Cold War competition between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.

Bukowski at the Cosmo Bar

Mother, Father Mahayana,

how do I know if I am

enlightened?

Such an outrageous question

might find an appropriate answer

from someone like Bukowski

muttering from some cosmic bar

on a star a billion miles from here:

“Dude,” he'd say,

“if you have to ask, you ain't there.”

– jab




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James Bethel James Bethel

The wondermoment . . .


Friday, October 3, 2025. It's Freya's (Frigg's) day...and Summer continues over TulseyTown. Hot Southerlies near if not at 90º for the afternoon.

[L]ike clouds passing across the sky, our thoughts, names, and stories come and go. But the open sky of awareness remains—vast, untouched, unbroken. When we discover that we are that sky—timeless and boundless—life itself becomes lighter, clearer, and infinitely more intimate. We are home now, and everyone is welcome. – Santiago Santai Jiménez

In an historic first, a woman has become The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church.

Connectedness can’t be ordered up, laid out, or unraveled. Its fire runs through an infinite network of points of mutual contact and exchange that are beyond explanation and must simply be accepted with respect and gratitude. – Susan Murphy

Novelist Gore Vidal was born on this day in 1925 West Point, New York.

Robert Reich has an idea about how the shutdown will end.

The Wondermoment

prompted by Robert Bly in the excellent anthology The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart.

Some men, I among them at that proverbial

once upon a time, wonder about love.

Confronted by the fact of our patriarchally received nature

but aware there must be a better way, we wonder.

The poet Robert Bly speaks of a man

who learns to love “the guiding woman.”

His heart is cultivated that way,

the way the patriarchy yields.

– jab

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