@Blue_Skyesr_here

I lived for a year on rice, beans, lentils, eggs, and the occasional discount apples to save up to leave myself, and I *still* would never have been able to get out without the kindness of some lovely people in my life. I keep waiting for the moment when I'll have enough hope of stability to be able to help others in a big way in turn, but until then I want to do what I can where I can. So thank you--if you're interested and it's feasible--for helping out a fellow CoSonaut. 🫂

The auction tradition we have here on CoSo is also common in Colombia, as raffles.

Our @Blue_Skyesr_here is fundraising to return to Colombia, to be with her infirm mother & break a cycle of sharp decline into US poverty.

But it costs a lot to settle affairs, fly out, & set up anew.

I can only donate time, as an editor & writer. I can review an MS / pitch materials for market viability, edit a work, do an affirmation read, or field questions for an hour.

Would this be of interest to anyone?

There is the loveliest couple in my barrio: hardworking, but very cash-poor grandparents, who keep a weekly route from church to church for the charity lunches on offer in some places, & help wherever they can for a day's pay.

Hard living?

Yes. They're lean people... but always smiling, always thankful, because they have each other. The *living definition* of for richer and for poorer.

And it's impossible to chat with them without feeling like *you've* received a gift.

Joy takes many forms.

Also:

Good morning, good Sunday, and watch your wounded hearts. 🫂🕯

Who will we be after the people we've become to survive?

My first lessons in hate came from my parents. They fought dirty. When angry, they'd use your worst secrets & fears against you. Once you realize that an adult sees anger as an excuse to be cruel, you know their love is always conditional.

Ever since, I've always watched how people manage their anger.

But these days, there's so much trauma tied up in our cruelty. So it's an open question:

Will we stay this cruel, after we've survived?

Offline for the rest of the day, to try to build on last night's success with novel revisions.

Take good care of yourselves.

If relentlessly checking the news could bring people home faster, you'd have a damned good reason to doomscroll. (In fact, I'd blame you for leaving the internet, TBH.)

But if you don't have that magical power? Limit your check-ins. Once an hour? While standing, stretching, hydrating?

Then go back to trying to heal your fretful heart.

(I hear pie helps. 💙)

#AmWriting

Last night a friend went into hospital with heart problems, and now this morning my brother is writing me from hospital with heart problems, too.

I am torn between being very happy that they are seeking medical aid, and unhappy about the heart problems themselves.

With my brother, it's a combination of smoking, caffeine, stress, and a mild congenital heart defect. Two of those things can be fixed. The other two are tougher.

Life is fragile.
Try not to let it kill you prematurely, eh?

🫂

😔 I'm sorry, gang.

I really wanted to join in on the #Caturday fun, but all I could find in the park today were these weird birds. Or squirrels?

Squirrel-birds.

Maybe next time! 🤷‍♀️

Goooooooooooooood morning Viet-

Er.

CoSo! 😘 Off for a run now. Or a walk. The body is tired and ornery after working all night, but it still needs movement.

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to try to stay up to finish enough of these novel revisions to send half out to my reader. That was my goal last weekend, before the laptop died.

Thinking about love languages today, though: the ones we use to show love, & the ones we value in turn.

The former, for me, is across the board: presence, words, touch, gestures, special days, food...

But what *I* like is pretty simple: just time with people who make me feel safe.

Which is... possibly why I like it here. 🙂

Night, CoSo. 🕊

And... after talking about not buying things on Black Friday, I just realized I need a new knife and a cutting board. 😅

When you've been living frugally for a long while, even little purchases require a pep talk. I'll do that on my walk to the store. 👍🏻

(Oh, and maybe buy socks! Livin' large!)

Then writing time. 🙂

Have a good one, all.

Also, I very happily amended yesterday's OnlySky piece to reflect an international news correction: Hanna Katzir, first reported to have died just hours before the ceasefire was reached, is apparently alive - and one of the women and children who was released today.

I've been going through the photos of the dead and missing so often these past few weeks that her photo just leapt out of the happy list.

May they all be able to rest and begin healing in peace. 🕯️

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-24/ty-article/these-are-the-israeli-women-and-children-freed-from-hamas-captivity-on-friday/0000018c-0178-d4d0-addf-47febba50000

The paid subscriber piece will be up on the weekend (Fog of War! McNamara! The complexity of learning from foxes how to shore up our darned henhouses!), and I'll have another piece for OnlySky too.

But... my evening students just cancelled, so after I finish an editing assignment and a walk, I am on NOVEL TIME, BABY. 🎉

May all your Fridays treat you well--but be good to yourselves even if this one's a real dud.

🤗

CoSo! Who needs a good reprieve from the nonsense of the world? 👀

Well... sorry to say that my latest newsletter, which reflects on Wag the Dog (1997), might not be a good escape. The film originally pointed to how easily politics could be gamed in an age of 24/7 TV media...

And I'm afraid this film cushioned the blow a bit. Today, I reflect on the media lessons that we never learned - and why we're often in no rush to learn them. 🙃

#MediaLiteracy
#BetterWorldsTheory
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/wag-the-dog-and-media-lessons-never

I think I'm going to start rating my working days in snails...

🐌 🐌 🐌🐌🙃

Woo! I did a wee fast this week for an energy reset, and it worked: I'm hopping out of bed before my alarm again. Much better. I haven't done this since July. Going for a run now, before a rescheduled morning class.

Morning CoSo! Be nice to your guts, if you feasted yesterday! 🤗 Water water water!