This is so much better.

Tried to work through the night yesterday, but the body refused my anxious breaking of routine: powering itself down like a robot with an automatic timer, and getting me up before today's alarm to go running instead.

And I'll work better today because of it. :)

Silly brains.

Silly bodies.

Happy Tuesday to both of yours, wherever the fool things find you.

I'll be returning to SFF social media more once my MS is off, but whew...

Today I went from writing a piece on Hindu nationalism to catching up on the latest SFF industry SNAFU: a massively corrupt administration behind this year's Hugo noms.

And yes, it's certainly a mess for writers getting arbitrarily blocked from consideration, but...

This is also why I'd become *so* disheartened by industry in the first place.

Nonsense like this keeps folks in crisis bubbles, far from the greater world.

People with, ah, tracts of land will know what I mean when I say that I'm now feeling this morning's training session in the most annoying places. 🙃

All part of the process of regaining full muscle mass, but ouch.

As per usual, my news brief isn't *that* brief--but only because it's important to read the news in context.

So if you're curious about Modi being present at a Hindu temple opening on the site of a razed mosque, I've got more details: history not just of the mosque razing, but also other recent events in India that worsen current ethnic tensions & heighten the risk of sectarian violence breaking out under an emboldened Hindu nationalism in an election year. Rough times.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/modis-campaign-opener-a-hindu-temple-on-a-razed-mosque-site/

US friends, I have a piece later this week on the *real* kitchen-table-politics election that you've been robbed of, but I'm currently finishing an explainer on Modi's latest Hindu nationalist stunt, so...

I want to recommend this segment of the latest This American Life, which looks at how everyday US voters are struggling with these primaries--and with their mental health in the process.

You deserved better than this fracaso.

Be gentle with yourselves this year, eh?
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/821/embrace-the-suck/act-one-1

Live footage of me returning from my first strength training workout this year, after a warm-up run with a time per mile that's still nothing to write home about. 🙃 Lacking in much testosterone to begin with, it's... gonna take a bit to get my reps and sets back into proper form, but we'll get there! 💪

https://youtu.be/byki-TXAK1U

Leaping out of bed again, to go for a run while the world is dark and calm.

:) Back to new routines we go.

Morning, CoSo!

Evening, CoSo. 🕊️

As usual, today's newsletter has a section for all readers & another for paid subscribers.

This one looks at religious history with a humanist lens, by which I mean sitting with the fact that people in the past had *very* different views of their faith, & drew from many now-lost texts in their worldly practice.

We can all learn a lot about ourselves, by remembering how much culture always changes.

Who knows what tomorrow's cultural "canon" might be?
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/beliefs-about-the-world-in-medias

Terms I've learned this weekend:

"Coco vacía" - literally, empty coconut; figuratively, when you expect to receive something good but there's nothing in it. (Also for when your home's been gutted.)

"Un canalla" - a degraded person, but the key here is that this is the nastiest thing one might say in *polite, political company*. There are plenty of worse words, but this one is used to accuse another public figure of being a disreputable POS without being seen as vulgar oneself. #ContextIsKey!

Who needs baby #MooCows today? 👀

#Nature #ThatGrazingLife

:) Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

I just needed a "peopling" reboot.

Now to work, then bed, then RUNNING. 💪🏻

And it wouldn't be a proper afternoon in #Colombia if people weren't out singing and dancing. 💛 If you have a body, you have everything you need to have fun.

P.S. Feel free to smack me upside the head sometimes. You all have open-hand privileges with me. 👍🏻💛

And a few more, because I like you rotters. 😘 (You know I don't like looking like a tourist, snapping photos all the time.)

Regarding the first: copyright infringement isn't taken as seriously here. Knock-off brand name clothes flood the streets, and Simpsons characters, Super Mario Bros, and even this fine fellow are repurposed by tons of local restaurants.

Further on, rich local history and economic degradation go hand in hand, with plaques stolen for the metal in them.

#Graffiti #Colombia

Taking a friend out this afternoon, and the walk across town is so invigorating and grounding. I get into a "performative busy" mode if I'm anxious, especially with no one around to smack me upside the head, but touching grass or reconnecting with people doing their best to make homes and communities with what little they have is always such a wonderful reminder that everything takes the time it takes, and to practise gratitude.

My brain is always my worst enemy. 🙃 Thank goodness for the world.

I really fell off my game in the last few days. Missed runs because I was working late, fell behind in my work anyway, fretted about the state of the world so much that I couldn't sleep when I tried...

Suffice it to say, building new routines is tricky and takes a few tries to get right.

But any time spent grousing about falling off the wagon is a waste of time that could be spent getting back on it again. So there is no more grumping about things I cannot change.

Only Z̶u̶u̶l̶ - er, moving on. 🙃