Shining light into dark places . . .
Tuesday, March 24, 2026. It's Tiw's day . . . moderate Southerlies maintain a mixed cloudy day over Green Country with some sun peaking. Mid 70's are in the forecasts. for TulseyTown.
Wheresoever we go, we bring light. It's why we are here.
Today is the birthdate of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco, he was born in 1919 Bronxville, New York.
John Wesley Powell was also born on this date. The geologist and explorer of the Grand Canyon and upper Colorado river was born in 1834 Mount Morris, New York.
Travelers at any major U.S. airport will soon feel like they’ve entered a foreign land. – Miles Taylor, in Defiance, 3.23.26
Trump's reckoning is underway. He has deflected and escalated his way into a global conflict he cannot control with domestic ramifications Republicans cannot endure. It's a death spiral for both. – Matt Kerbel, Wolves and Sheep, 3.23.26
What was actually in the Meller Report? – Joyce Vance shines a light, in Civil Discourse.
Constantly Risking Absurdity
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of day ...
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Constantly Risking Absurdity,” from A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems. New Directions. 1958.
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.