An hour before evening classes, the hills all dusted hazy-gold, and the distant brick homes alive with sunset glow...

🤔

...Poetry time?

Poetry time.

Terrorism time!

This week's Humanist Book Club reflects on the part of KSR's The Ministry for the Future that had everyone talking when it first came out: the eco-terrorism!

So much of it!
In so many forms!

Is it necessary?
Was Robinson suggesting that there'd be no other way?

Or does this book illustrate what happens when society reaches certain breaking points... as a warning for us not to let things get so dire in the first place?

#GlobalHumanism
#ClimateCrisis
https://onlysky.media/mclark/how-to-spare-billionaires-from-terrorist-attack/

😬 I just received an Elections Canada update notice, to confirm address for mailing out a ballot.

I'll have to call and confirm. It costs *a lot* to mail in my ballot from a country that lacks a reliable public system. Last time it was around 60CAD via DHL, which I split with another Canadian.

But I sure as heck vote anyway, and *will* if there's an election brewing.

Only...

Can we please not have an election when PP Le Pew is so high in the polls? 🙃 Maybe wait it out a crazy cycle or two?

Dale McGowan has a terrifically thoughtful piece on OnlySky about how difficult it is for artifacts of social history to survive our censorious impulses.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is a tremendously useful document for studying the quotidian in another era (plague, civil war, drinking, adultery, domestic violence, early weather reports, bowel movements… you know, a Tuesday!).

But it almost didn’t make it to us in its full, messy “glory”.

#History #Literature #Reading https://onlysky.media/dale/sam-pepys-and-the-damned-shredders-of-lowercase-history/

This week's It Could Happen Here is reruns, but the first is a great essay I enjoyed the first time through. Its thesis? The tech industry has been an unmitigated failure for overall human thriving, expressly because the direction taken by technologists hasn't been in service to the best possible improvements to human life.

It's a provocative thesis, worth sitting with even if you quibble. It's not Tech Bad! It's Tech Without Ethical Vision Bad.

How do we dream better?
https://pca.st/episode/991cd39f-9a4f-4f02-b8fd-4b0e8198b416

CoSo, are you feeling out of sorts? Wobbly? Weary?

Do yourself the solid of taking a minute to read @corlin's take on The 4 Noble Truths. #Buddhism

There's a time and a place for work by the likes of Thích Nhất Hạnh.

But MAN, sometimes we just need it given to us with a little lip. 😊 Thank you, Corlin, for this gift of a laugh and truth.

https://world.hey.com/corlin/the-4-noble-truths-79eac10f

Not everyone's a runner, and that's okay. If you made it up today, well done.

A merry little early morning #MooCow crew to you, too! #Nature

This morning is nice and wet from overnight rain. Perfect for a wee run, even if I'm still waking up later than I'd like.

I used to leap out of bed at 4 a.m. and by "used to" I mean, for years, up until this summer. The state of the world, my industries, and my declining hope for a better personal future has really knocked me off course. But! We'll get there again. 💪🏻

Good morning, CoSo. Don't forget to feed the soft animal of your body. It runs best on a diet of water, nutrients, and grace.

Evening CoSo!

I won't be sending a preview of all paid newsletters to the full mailing list - but for each month's media round-up, I've decided I'll always have one rec above the paywall.

Also:

For Patrons and paid Substack subscribers, one of my monthly posts will be reflections on a few media items.

This was a topic requested by someone who supports me financially. I'm open to more such suggestions from other supporters, too. 👍 Good to break up the ponderous essays!
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/monthly-reading-and-viewing-roundup

It's a common problem in life, that we can only rise in ways commensurate with the growth (or lack thereof) of those around us.

To try to build better for oneself going forward, one is always in negotiation with the past, & with how the past lives in us & shapes our networks.

To those navigating their own habituated responses to past trauma's impact on present relationships and future-planning:

Thank you for the courage of your perseverance.

It is enough that we are trying to break through.

(Relatedly, if you're ever in the region, let me know so I can fix you a plate and a tray to take home with you after! 😘)

I woke up still rattled by the 2 a.m. messages from my well-intentioned but definitely all-over-the-map sibling, so...

I immediately messaged a friend here I haven't seen in a while. I *love* cooking for others, but haven't had much of a chance, with my own "people" away for two years.

Now, to celebrate her new job & apartment, I'll be hopping over with a cast iron skillet in two weeks to make a decadent lunch with wine & dessert. 🤞

Could not be happier to have something to look forward to.

Also, I did a #horror #movie meme on another site, and I should definitely have done it here as well. I'm using a longer form of my name because I want more movies - but I think you'll agree that these pair nicely.

---

Plan a horror fest using only your first name:

Mandy (2018)
Altered States (1980)
Green Room (2015)
Get Out (2017)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Eyes without a Face (1960)

Who's coming over? 👀

I don't know how many others here once read Errol Morris's columns. They were meditations on how we look; reflections on how art shapes our world; long form journeys through the preconceptions underlying our approach to what stays in the picture, and what's left out.

In a better world, @A_Jay_Adler's work might have an audience such as Morris's.

His latest reflection, on the selectivity of "knowing" through photographic record, certainly belongs to that tier of insight. https://open.substack.com/pub/ajayadler/p/a-terrible-honesty

Morning, CoSo! ☕️

What's on tap for your Sundays?

(Extra points if you can describe your day as a literal brew on tap. I'm going for something less hoppy myself, a seasonal ale with notes of citrus, maybe 4% mood altering content.)

Mood:

When your bipolar I family member blows up your phone with their latest manic pipe dream of a solution to your biggest problem, and your bipolar 2 brain agonizes anew over the problem itself (which the wild idea cannot solve, alack), while simultaneously fantasizing about all the good you could do if it *were* resolved.

Silly brains.

🙃 But there's a moral to the story:

Don't rattle the bars in the middle of the night! If you agitate one monkey in the monkey house, you set them all off.

I meant to post this under #HumansArentEvenInTheTop1000Species last week.

It's a screencap from the bad place, alas, where there are still a few good accounts waiting to rehome themselves.

But what a ridiculous/adorable floof, no?

Who vetoed humans having floof?!

Catching up on paid newsletter pieces today, but I'm going to postpone the arbitration piece for tomorrow, and pop in a lighter list of thoughtful recent reads and views first. Too much grim stuff!

Patrons or Substack paid subscribers will have access, but if you're one of the former & don't receive the latter, it might be because you're not signed up on Substack. (Let me know!)

For everyone else? I still rec this short film for wee ones & weary hearts. It is beautiful.
https://youtu.be/Fbdem4g_LEc