Just on the bus home, between writing stints (but still writing when I get back!).

Here's one of those lovely neighbourhood nativity scenes I try to capture every year. There is a huge sense of *el pueblo* in how folks in many Latino communities appreciate and understand the story of Christmas. If it's not about uplifting a holistic understanding of humanity, whom does the story really serve?

As a humanist, I love seeing people bring the best of their stories forward.

May yours keep you well.

After two weeks of insomnia keeping me up until 2am doomscrolling awfulness in the world, I'm off to bed to try to force myself back into my predawn running. Then MIA all day for work tasks.

But here's a little Stevie Wonder with a message that's true to how I feel the weird wonderful lot of you. 💛

Sleep well, you dreamers - and have a great Thursday, too! #CoSoMusic

https://youtu.be/L_sG0weS1d8

@stephen_a_allen! I'm assuming you've seen this call for ghazals?

#Poetry #CoSoWriters

https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/264916/tribute-to-the-ghazal

I got a whiff of something tonight that made me feel nostalgic.

You know what's rare-to-nonexistent in Medellín?

Eggnog.

I haven't had eggnog in over half a decade.

Man, I should make some.

(And oat milk is a staple here, *way* cheaper and more popular than North America, so maybe a vegan spiked version... 🤔 Hm hm hm!)

Also hard to come by: molasses, to bake my own gingerbread; mulled wine; canned cranberries; maple syrup; & lemons (though limes abound!). To every region its specialties. 😋

All right, lovelies.

Time for a walk, and then... novel writing! Because I have no classes tonight! 🎉

But thank you, first and foremost, to everyone who leans into constructive thinking.

Everyone who offers gentle nudges to the frazzled when they're far from their own.

Everyone who takes the dust bunny of despair in their heart and turns it into... I dunno, the lint art of perseverance?

Eesh. I'll work on my metaphors while walking. 🙃

Might need one or two of them for the writing tonight!

*sorry, @daniel! I had "cohabiting" the first time around, instead of "co-habitating", and even if we do share habits, too, it's the co-habitating that matters more! :)

Also, three cheers for the Québécois. If you noticed in my article, Québec joined the accord *actually* pushing to phase out fossil fuels. Not Canada! Québec.

It was granted the right to independent representation years ago, and it has its own honourary consul in 18 countries, along with its own delegate at UNESCO.

Canada is a land of many co-habitating nations, and it's nice to see that diversity represented internationally.

(Now for the rest of Canada to sign on to that accord, too!)

Okay, folks. 🌎

As noted, I didn't want to publish a piece on COP28 that wasn't proactive. This one is.

COP28 was a cop-out.

We all knew it would be.

It's too steeped in private industry not to be.

But in the middle of the cop-out, action pathways were proposed that we *can* follow through on.

We just have to lean into the coalitions within the coalition that are *actually* looking for system-wide change.

So buckle up! This next part will be bumpy.

#ClimateCrisis

https://onlysky.media/mclark/cop28s-climate-cop-out-and-what-comes-next/

Almost finished today's piece, but I don't like it. I've been highlighting the abject failure of our institutions in a few recent articles: one on our uneven history of advocacy for human rights, one on the carelessness of media treating news of Saudi Arabia's oil plans as shocking, one on COP28's initial messes (this is the follow-up), and of course one on the inefficacy of the UN.

But I don't just want to repeat that all our institutions have failed, so I'm working on the proactive part now.

There's a line from the adaptation of Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain", where our embittered protag lectures his writing class, "There's a difference between 'The king died and the queen died', and 'The king died and the queen died of a broken heart'."

We have so much talent here - musicians, writers, crafters, coders, world-wranglers...

Today I just want to celebrate @WordsmithFL: who knows how to pack a line as such, and whose work reminded me of that film this week. :)

https://youtu.be/geVjWlni-Co

For anyone who wants a hint, well, that's your loss. 😉

There's a... middle-of-the-day back-of-the-car music fest now blasting from across the street? Oh, Colombia.

Off to work at the mall now. Happy afternoon, all!

Ha. One of today's #WhatsMyCookieCutter posts was too good not to share.

If you don't get it, that just means you didn't waste as much time on the same parts of the internet in the past. Congrats!

If you do get it, I am so sorry.

(Also, what kind of monster makes cookies out of this?)

Another note of giddiness:

Two of my students have now admitted what I knew they would (what all students here do in December): they don't have time for more classes this month.

Shock! Gasp! 😅

Why do my students always try to insist they can juggle Navidad with classes? Every year, it's the same.

But! That's fine by me, because now I can *really* hunker down and finish the novel draft around my paid writing before New Year's. And I will! 💪

#NoExcuses
#WorkWriting
#ThenWritingForMe!

Last night there was a glorious rainstorm, and with it, an explanation of my killer headache prior. :) Pressure systems! Sheesh!

All right, week. Round 2 to starting you off right. Ding-ding!

I've had a killer headache all day, despite hydrating the meat sack, walking the meat sack, and medicating the meat sack.

It just makes me feel ridiculous, because out my window tonight I see a man walking the highway begging for coin while his toddler sleeps against his shoulder.

It is really frustrating to have such a low-grade problem affecting workflow, when I have so much more agency than so many.

But! Meat sacks, am I right?

Whatcha gonna do?

Okay, so--

Today's paid-subscriber newsletter has a free-to-read component first: a general essay reflecting on how geopolitical fluke alone has kept most of our lives from being bigger parts of dramatic propaganda plays.

Then I get into propaganda around three media items in particular (maybe four, depending?).

This is a warm-up to eventually finishing a fuller essay on this theme, to share with everyone.

Thanks for being part of my warm-up round, paid supporters! 🤗

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/monthly-media-roundup-on-propaganda

Day 1.

Good morning to everyone who's hauled their wayward meat sacks through hard ages, and is still here, with wrinkles and scars that would tell *stories* if they talked.

Survival is always worth celebrating. ☕

Anyway - g'night, and g'luck! 🤗

Sometimes I forget there was a time when I wasn't checking the latest horrific news from conflict zones on a daily basis.

I've still got a piece on propaganda in the works, but it needs to be done carefully to help, not hinder. I study my own reactions as well as others', but it's all just... so primal.

The most important work propaganda does is make us forget what it was like *not* to be perfect receivers for any source we see as on our "side".

FOX ate brains.

We aren't immune to it either.