One last note tonight:

Colombia has at least three active civil wars - with dissident FARC, ELN, & Clan del Golfo (narcotraffickers affecting political cause).

Everyone has a story from hard seasons in 60+ years of conflict. Trauma & atrocity are known elements to be grieved.

Where Colombians differ is that it's not appropriate to talk politics most of the time.

Too much bluster to no good end.

Online, we have the privilege to be able to talk of atrocity safely.

May we always use it well.

Had to get a wee bit drunk to do so, but today I took the first step toward a big decision.

I can still *not* make this decision down the line - and I'm still not sure if my mental health is up for it - but I at least sent out an email that gives me more options going forward than I've had in a while.

And that's not nothing.

It only took... two years? 🙃

Now to focus on a 20-day reset so that I can make the next decision with a clear head in November.

Brains are messy.
Be good with yours. 🤗

#ComingOutDay:

I didn't "come out" as a kid, in part because there were bigger crises in my childhood. I just was, & later found my "people" among those who grieved the limits of so much LGBTQ+ activism.

Queerness asks big questions about why society is the way it is. Why can't we choose who's with us in hospital? Why does a certificate decide so much? Why are human rights contingent on label status?

*Society* still needs to come out (of its old shell).

And we will welcome it when it does.

Whew.

How are you taking care of your hearts today, CoSo?

Hey, @CoSoTips!

If there's a 1+ on a post of mine where I can only see one comment, and I have only blocked a single spam account in my time here, the cause must be... someone from a locked account replying to my piece?

Or is it a glitch? Does the 1+ stay if someone, say, posts and then deletes a comment?

Today's newsletter is a shorter, simpler read, on war-grief.

Specifically, it's a reflection with the help of poetry and science fiction, on how humans endure those times when evolutionary processes cannot keep up with the threat of global catastrophe—either from natural causes, or of our own creation.

Grief affirms our desire to rise above biology.

It is a strength, not a weakness, even in hard times.

#Humanism #Poetry #Literature #Grief #War
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/there-will-come-soft-rains

Follow-up point, very important:

All armies mislead in war (it's part of combat) & media will run with it.

Yesterday a single reporter said she was told something by IDF, in a press tour where only foreign journalists were allowed. IDF didn't confirm the account. Other reporters didn't, either.

But media acted like her secondhand uncorroborated account was true. In a flash it spread, fortifying fury.

This is the fog of war, and it diminishes trust in the long run.

Pay attention to sourcing.

#War

Tons of disinformation is flying. I never expected to be putting my rough Arabic to use like this, but there are many old videos and videos of Iranian atrocity being spread by folks who can't even tell when something is in Persian instead. Plus we have multiple speakers for #Hamas spreading different claims in interviews, all credulously redistributed in ways that serve their ends.

Disseminate carefully.

Everything that needs doing can be done without poorly sourced & sensational data.

Tomorrow I will have a piece on collective punishment: a history, contemporary praxis, the human behaviours that underpin its use, and why we're so far from being able to halt its presence in conflict.

But that bleakness is for after I post today's newsletter and teach tonight's classes.

Here are some merry little roadside moo cows for you, too.

Please nobody tell them what horrible things we humans rationalize, and do.

Not sure who here will enjoy this, but my latest review for Strange Horizons... kind of eviscerates a mess of an academic book? A work of literary analysis attempting to fit science fiction into a #History of #Philosophy that Hegel and Lukács applied to other narrative forms?

My review at least gives a taste of academic writing, & explores the perils of publishing pressures for academics. Never mind the bollocks (er, academese): sometimes analysis *is* junk.

#SFF #Books
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/science-fiction-and-narrative-form-by-david-roberts-andrew-milner-and-peter-murphy/

The above note goes for all of you, too.

How's your heart? How's your mood? What are you doing to take care of yourselves one day at a time?

I'm just finishing up a newsletter right now, and finding it difficult not to dive down rabbit holes of terrible footage of atrocity.

(Which is a little unfair to the rabbits, I know; most of them don't have holes anywhere near as depraved as online forums.)

Be as gentle with yourselves as circumstances allow.

And ask after your neighbours if you can.

@joycereynoldsward, how are you doing? I haven't been as focused as I meant to be, and I haven't expressed how sorry I am for the medical challenges you've been moving through as of late.

How's your heart?
How's your mood?

Are you find yourself able to set good routines, from one day to the next, to ground yourself amid so much uncertainty and stress?

I do so hope you're doing okay - and taking care of yourself as best you can.

A wee fiction rec for you today.

Zachary Rosenberg didn't write this piece with the current conflict in mind, but I keep coming back to it in that light. All this loss. How it speaks to us.

Framed by a Jewish rite, it can be read across the spectrum, as a reminder that grief work is not just about paying a debt to the departed. It's much more mutual than that; it's about letting the dead sit with you, too, and help you frame how to move forward.

#AmReading #Literature
https://thedeadlands.com/issue-29/sitting-shiva/

This, for instance, is the kind of explainer I enjoy being able to take my time with: a piece in February that explained why "dark energy" is a misnomer, and reflected on how the terms we use when reporting on science can massively impact broader understanding of key concepts in our cosmos.

I've also tackled the dangers of medical news reporting, and of course biology, but anything related to cosmology has my heart above all else.

Gotta lean into joy again soon!

https://onlysky.media/mclark/early-black-holes-simplify-the-question-of-dark-energy/

🙃 I just spent 15 minutes writing to the editors of a major science news hub about their presentation of evolutionary theory. This is a bugbear of mine - evolution is *so* poorly reported on, and plays right into a lot of cultural ignorance - but...

I also realized I'm grouchy because the world's awfulness has kept me from writing more on scientific literacy in general.

Too much "politicians not listening to science" and "humans being shitty" as of late. Not enough wonder in the cosmos itself.

🫂 And I know folks here aren't as rotten as what's been emboldened online in the last few days, but I needed to expel the bad vibes meeting me when I checked in with the news today.

It's incredibly disheartening how little two decades of post-9/11 war, and a year and a half of Russian invasion, fresh off a major pandemic, has taught so many about human life.

But I'm so glad to know the rest of you. 🕊️

Take care of your noggins today.
Watch your screentime.