Sigh. I needed to remember a name for the newsletter, so I cracked open my dissertation for the first time in years.

It is so heartbreaking to revisit, because I'd written it twice before discovering that committee was absolutely not the right fit. One prof was a very defensive Christian who seemed to think I'd chosen to study literary responses to the rise of stellar evolution just to pick on Christians. That hurt my humanist heart. But this was GOOD work. I should have been allowed to defend.

The 5th National #Climate Assessment just dropped, and I've given it a cursory review, but I'm going to read it properly tonight before writing on it for OnlySky tomorrow in more depth. (As you all know, we hates the clickbait rush to press, we does!)

I do want to say, though, that it is the most proactive data I've seen in a while. Hard work ahead, but lots of discussion of what's working, what's coming, and what needs to be done.

GREAT science literacy in the guide, too!

And even a #poem! 🎉

I had a lovely lunch with my friend, who knows full well how hard it is to do work while feeling helpless.

Crisis cases come to her *long* past the point where intervention is needed, so we talked about the failures of public policy, the persistence of self-destructive human behaviours through times & contexts, & why current governance structures make change so hard.

...all while we ate a homecooked meal, admired her garden, & listened to vallenato in the distance, on a beautiful afternoon. 🙂

There is no autumn in Medellín. But every now and then I spy a tree going through its own personal fall. 🍂 #NotCanada

And flutterbies! 🙂

I am such a sucker for the little things.

Okay, okay - on to lunch.

Have a good one, all!

#Nature #Colombia

On holiday Mondays, Medellín has another "ciclovia" - a halfday of highways and major throughways closed for cycling and walking routes. Health and wellness is big here, and well-supported by free public programs.

Also - bonus giant "house" plants! This is a richer part of the city and there are *so* many homes and public areas filled with well-maintained flora.

I do really need to be out in the world more. My head is a ridiculously silly place in which to reside most of the time. 🙃

Hello other side of the city! I am in you! 💛

Vonnegut's Bluebeard was just what I needed.

Usually in a down-cycle or mixed state, I go offline. As of late, "mixed state" has felt accurate: vivid dreams on little sleep, energy for days without eating, but all the while, a bell inside with no clapper; a quiet conviction that it's all over for me soon.

Vonnegut imagines Sisyphus happy. Hey, the bell's still *here* even if it can't clap, y'know?

I'll write more on Bluebeard for this week's Substack, but--find what keeps you going, eh? 💙

Aha! I knew it. :)

This is going to be fun hour of nostalgia.

#AmReading

Here's the other side: in the same paper, there are updates on Petro's attempts at "total peace" - a complex and hardwon thing, when negotiating with many groups at once.

ELN has announced that it's not going to stop kidnapping civilians because that's an income stream 🙃, while Clan del Golfo is diversifying its portfolio: exploiting immigrants trying to reach the US, in the absence of robust drug returns.

Colombia celebrates hard because Colombia also holds in tension how hard life always is.

The road to Navidad is always so pretty here.

There are three "phases" in Medellín:

Sept 1 - the end of Feria de las flores in August brings the first Xmas decorations into stores.

Then sometime in late October or early November the lights start going up. :)

Next up, fireworks on Nov 30, leading up to Dec 1. Then all of December is filled with events - Día de las velitas, novena, the local April Fools on Dec 28 - until Día de los reyes in January.

Still 100% atheist, but what a culture! 💛

Okay, folks. 🕯️

I hope you've had a good Remembrance Day.

Today's piece grieves the parts of war not covered on this occasion, and how ill-prepared we've been to reckon with how civilians are "recruited" in war as well: if not in life, then through how we use their deaths to further the narrative "battle".

Everyone who died on October 7 and thereafter deserves better memorializing than our sordid rush to rumour has thus far given them. Will we ever do remembrance well?

https://onlysky.media/mclark/disembodied-grief-and-the-challenge-of-remembrance/

Heading off for the night, but one last wee thought:

I spend so much of my day glued to a screen I sometimes forget that, even though armchair commentary is about all I can offer the world right now, what happens on-screen *isn't* the world.

Right now there are people living in agony, wondering when their ordeal will turn from a stage of active horror to one that better allows for grief & the hard work of recovery.

Find your people.
Hug 'em. Love 'em.
Be present on those realer roads as well.

Perennial reminder that you are all damned fine people.

A lil' weird sometimes!

A lil' bite-y... when necessary!

But damned fine.

Glad to be weird and sometimes bite-y in here with you.❤️

True fact: this also works for times when you're venting to yourself. 😅

Just for balance. 😉 #waffles

Back to work!

Remember, remember, the 10th of November. :)

Have a good one, CoSo!

The wall of Christmas desserts is up.

Natilla (a basic pudding mix, which comes in tradicional, arequipe, tres leches, coco, and maracuyá flavours) and buñuelos.

Can you get buñuelos easily any day of the year here?

Absolutely.

Do people still get excited for their Christmas-time buñuelos with natilla?

100%.

#Colombia is not a (series of) culture(s) that gets anxious about having the same thing all the time.

Why mess with perfection? 😅

Dawn in the misty park
at season's end
and start.

A breeze, a song,
a distant train
rumbling on--

I have not checked
the news
for hours.

Just a wee news brief this time. 🕊️

In it, I connect a recent report highlighting the huge greenhouse gas emissions from US and UK military operations (sky's blue, Pope's a Catholic, etc.) with the overall challenges that wars present while we're also trying to combat climate change.

COP28 already has funding problems, as illustrated in a recent Pre-COP meeting.

What will it take to bring the world together properly to save (more of) us from climate change disaster?

https://onlysky.media/mclark/military-emissions-climate-funds-and-a-hard-road-to-cop28/