Here's a gratitude game I play with myself.

I pick a modern object and ruminate over how much history went into making it possible. Take this rig: the metal components come from tens of thousands of years of metal-craft. The paints and rubbers come from synthetic versions of natural dyes and fibres that cost hundreds of thousands of lives to industrialize. Then there's the engineering, and the distribution challenges...

We live on the shoulders of so many.
And we take *such* gifts for granted.

It was so lovely this morning to see everyone's greetings to each other here.

Thank you, CoSo, for your conviviality and all-around neighbourliness. 💛 A gift in any era, but especially in so fraught a time as ours.

Dagnabbit, barnacles, and shaving cream--

I *said* this summer that I wasn't going to write any other fiction outside of finishing the Thucydides-in-space novel...

But I drafted a gosh-darned SF story today, when I should've been finishing a newsletter. Like a sneeze. Like it was all wadded up and lodged deep in my brain cavity, and needed one good long honk to splat out. 😠 Well! I guess I'm going to need to edit and submit it soon.

THANKS BRAIN.

WAY TO STAY ON FOPDOODLING TASK THIS WEEKEND.

"Your perception system is trash, Todd." :)

#Comics
#Existentialism
#AI
#Bunnies

Cute headline in today's paper:

"Tourism at high risk? 59 [foreigners] dead in Medellín in 3 years"

I follow online forums to keep an eye on what gringos say about Colombia, and what happens to them here.

It's always the same story: Fellow thinks a local woman is clearly interested in him because his bad or non-existent Spanish is just that charming, and ends up dead from an altercation during robbery or overdose from a knockout drug.

Travel carefully. Stay street-smart.
Death is always sad.

Oh, but here's a good tie-in to my article's closer: an update on a key part of the Peace Deal that hasn't been carried out well in Colombia, because the very act of pursuing peace felt like a betrayal to some, who then voted in a right winger who dragged his feet on implementing key parts of the accord.

Instability gives way to more violence, which gives way to more politicians campaigning on a promise to crush it.

Things are changing a bit w/ Petro now, post-pandemic. Paso a paso!

#Colombia

Okay, loves. Here's the big one. 🕊️

Today, I have an explainer.
It covers 30 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the Oslo Accords to now.

I wrote this to illustrate why peace is and will be hard:
namely, because peace attempts have never been implemented in good faith, or with sufficient regional consensus.

But this isn't the first time we've needed to heal from deep violence.

We have to remember that healing is complex. Time is what we need to get it right.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/from-oslo-to-october-7-and-beyond/

All right--

Time to organize these rogue pieces of research into an article: histories, restorative justice pathways, and difficult facts to include carefully.

Now comes the "fun" part: testing premises as I assemble a 30-year timeline and argument for a readership primarily of outsiders, without oversimplifying anything to the point of inaccuracy.

A challenge, but also a responsibility.

Set high standards for the journalism you read, eh?

There's been so much bad coverage this past month.

This is the last of my "catch-up" newsletters for paid readers (this week's freebie next!).

I'm posting it here, though, because the first part is free-to-read and addresses a sense of despair I suspect a lot of fellow creators are feeling right now, while trying to sustain enough cognitive dissonance amid the terrible state of the world to keep believing in the value of our creative work.

It's okay if that myth is difficult to sustain right now.

It is not your fault.

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/monthly-reading-and-viewing-roundup-667

Morning, loves. 🕯️

How are your hearts?

As promised, one of the "heavy" pieces this week. Took a while, but for good reason--

Today, I highlight the hypocrisy around how antisemitism is leveraged by right-wing media, now that it has a left-wing target. But the rot of anti-Jewish rhetoric, along with other forms of hate, runs much deeper.

We will never be rid of this stain on humanity if we don't own up to how much we "use" anti-hate advocacy for other ends. #Humanism https://onlysky.media/mclark/antisemitism-for-me-but-not-for-thee/

👌

Gift. Gifted. Given. Never Gif up. Never surrender.

For everyone else...

As disruptive as the party is, I didn't realize how much I just needed to see kids happily enjoying their childhoods right now.

Of course, not far from these kids there's a little girl with her father begging on the highway, but... it's important to remember the standard we're striving for: a society where *everyone* is safe like this, and can know joy in community.

Still a long, long way to go, mi gente. 💛

Still in the park, letting myself get a good soak in. It is very wet, but not enough to deter the fútbol teams. Christmas displays are showing up.

So much of human history confounds the audacity of the claim that we care about life. I could die tomorrow & I'll have been a siĺly blip, but I *probably* won't die in a way that makes me just a political number.

Victims of mass shootings, wars, immigration tragedies... They're on scorecards now.

Hug your loved ones.
You are never just a number.

Okay, nature lovers - and lovers of weird natures. Back to work now, but thanks for the Discovery Channel break. 😘

Keep it in the kingdom, kids! :) But otherwise? Go wild.

In more seriousness, we should get to know our salps. They're an extremely unusual critter positively blooming in population size due to climate change. Their presence isn't always a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

They also mate weirdly! In the asexual part of their lifecycle, they clone. But in the sexual part, they start in female clusters, then swap to male clusters after gestating a load.

Not to worry, folks! When climate change takes us out, we'll be replaced by some things weirder! #Nature

#FloodTheFirehose 🙃

Okay, lovely humans. 🕊️

This one is for those who are struggling to know what to say, and how to manage feelings about all the horrible things other people are saying, in the middle of this latest war.

People's worst natures *are* coming out, and while this may not be avoidable, it's legitimate to be hurt by them.

It is not wrong to be humanitarian.

It's just that our empathy has to expand to include everyone whose trauma makes humanitarianism difficult right now.
https://onlysky.media/mclark/when-all-words-do-is-hurt/

Hey loves,

How's your day been? 🫂

I'm still working on backlog, but when I get to the point where I want to disconnect from everything, I know I need to "tap in" and remind myself I'm not alone.

On the days when it is... very difficult to see the point of anything... when nothing charms and you honestly can't remember how anything ever did...

Just remember you don't have to answer "What's the point?" right now. You can start simple:

Have you eaten?
Hydrated?
Stepped out and felt the world?

Morning, CoSo.

I have a news brief for folks who want to rage at the world being *differently* awful.

We've long known that bans on legal abortion don't reduce abortion rates. They only increase suffering: higher maternal mortality rates, and lower quality healthcare all around.

Meanwhile, there *are* things one can do if one is genuinely "pro-life" - like push for climate change action to improve fetal outcomes. (Not holding my breath, though...)

#ReproductiveRights
https://onlysky.media/mclark/state-bans-see-increase-in-national-abortions-decrease-in-reproductive-care/

I had a rotten day: mental stuff.

Someone's harassing me in my neighbourhood--not malevolently, just with no sense of boundaries--& all I can do is change routines & wait him out--but it makes me feel trapped. Today, it had my brain flailing in a million directions trying to "bargain" my way out.

I've been held at gunpoint three times in Colombia, and otherwise assaulted plenty. I *can* handle myself. I just hate having to.

Here's a cutie patootie of a rat. Hope you've had better brain days!