Children pay attention . . .
Monday, March 23, 2026. It's the Moon's day . . . moderate Northwesterlies are in the forecasts for Green Country bringing a chill to otherwise sunny skies to TulseyTown. Mid 60's this afternoon are to ease the area out of its mid 40's wind-chill of the morning.
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift. – Mary Oliver.
Today, one of, if not the most important, cases in front of the Supreme Court this term begins. The Week Ahead. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.
More creative's birthdays . . .
Kurosawa Akira born in 1910 Tokyo, Japan. He was the first Japanese film director to win international acclaim
Elizabeth Taylor born in 1932 London, England.
Yesterday:
Reese Witherspoon turned 50. The multi-laureate awarded actor was born in 1976 New Orleans, Louisiana.
William Shatner – the original “Captain Kirk” in Star Trek – celebrated his 95th. The actor, author, director, producer was born in 1931 Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
James Patterson is 79. The prolific author was born in 1947 Newburgh, New York.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is 78. The English composer and impresario of musical theatre was born in 1948 London, England.
And, one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, Stephen Sondheim, was born in 1930 New York City.
At The River Clarion
… the river Clarion still flows
from wherever it comes from
to where it has been told to go . . .
while I sit here in a house filled with books,
ideas, doubts, hesitations.
And still, pressed deep into my mind,
the river keeps coming, passing by
on its long journey. Its pale, infallible voice singing.
. . .
And how are you so certain
that it doesn't sing?
– Mary Oliver, from “At the River Clarion,” Evidence, Beacon Press, 2025
– Stephen Sondheim, Into The Woods.
Filling the empty cup of the heart . . .
Sunday, March 22, 2026. It's Sol's day . . . A breezy, sunny day is in the forecasts for Green Country today with the heat easing a bit in TulseyTown. Moderate Southerlies are to become strong Northerlies in the mid-afternoon with 90's dropping into the low 70's and then 60's in the evening.
So much of our growth on the spiritual path comes not from gaining new knowledge but from remembering what we’ve always known but have forgotten.
In these times, as when Adam Smith wrote, it is important to remind ourselves of the revolutionary notion at the heart of Smith’s opus—that the wealth of a nation is measured not by its accumulated riches, but by the productivity and living standards of all its people. – Robert Reich, On Smith's 250th Anniversary, substack 3.17.26
That said, it's worth noting that the “productivity and living standards” of Americans is taking a big hit due to Trump's war. It's ugly and likely to get uglier. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American.
Decency died. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.
Tyranny cannot succeed where people refuse to submit to it. – Robert Reich, Sunday Thought, 3.22.26
Billy Collins commemorates his 85th turn about the sun today. The U.S. Poet Laureate (2002-2003) was born in 1941 New York City.
Carbon Dating
He tried it once
as a last resort,
but most of the women
were a million years old.
– Billy Collins, “Carbon Dating,” from Musical Tables: Poems. Random House, 2022.
Prayer: there is something about stepping lightly aside and allowing the grace of the present moment to fill the empty cup of the heart. --- Mirabai Starr, How I Pray.
Choosing happiness anyway . . .
Saturday, March 21, 2026. It's the Satyr's day . . . more record heat is in the forecasts for Green Country. Southerlies, sunny and upper 90's. The heat dome is to move out of the area overnight tonight. Low 90's tomorrow.
In the morning mailbox
If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion. --Hildegard of Bingen
Between Us
…I knew when I said
I love you
that I was inventing a new alphabet
for a city where no one could read
that I was saying my poems
in an empty theater
and pouring my wine
for those who could not
taste it...
– Nizar Qabbani, “Between Us,” in translation, publisher unknown.
Today, the multi-laureate awarded actor, Gary Oldman is 67. born in 1958, London, England. multi laureate awarded actor.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685, Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies [Germany]. Among the greatest composers in the history of music.
Trump is trapped in Iran and American consumers are up Shit's Creek.-- Robert Reich, “The real reason Trump is trapped,” on substack, 03.20.26
The argument for choosing happiness in this moment:
If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are “crying for the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end. – Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity, Vintage Books edition, 2011.
Anyway
Flowers don't like dodgeball.
They never scream pick me, pick me.
I feel rejected, I guess,
is what I'm saying about beauty.
…
If you are alive, you're
a beautifully foolish revolutonary
throwing bombs at the grave.
…
Sure,we're all going to die,
but most of us aren't going to die
in Philadelphia, or December, or without love.
– Bob Hicok, “Anyway,” The Colorado Review, Spring 2026, p.224.