Shockingly, it is really hard to finish writing pieces for a site I know is going dormant next Thursday, then disappearing a few weeks thereafter.

When we get an export of all our articles, I'll be rehosting them on a revamped version of my website, rather than on my Substack, so that I can organize them better by topic - which I hope will help when pitching to future publications.

My essay on CoSo will disappear when the site does, but I'll be sure to put up a link to its new home then, too.

😊 You know it's a good day when the local news focuses on the important stuff: the future of local bean varieties and the capture of US sexual predators - who not only went after minor teens but drugged and beat them. Two down, many still to go.

ANYWAY, back to them beans. 😋

I was going to build on my day's productivity with a seamless launch into the next writing task, but apparently Saturday marching band practice has restarted for the year. 🙃 Time for a walk first.

Today's newsletter is a brief one, introducing the new schedule for Better Worlds Theory starting Monday.

It outlines a four-day posting schedule, plus word of a rebooted YouTube channel and Patreon posts. Now that I can streamline my workflow, I can build consistent work on a few interconnected venues.

From Monday Media to Tough Times Tuesday, to Rewind Wednesday, to Thorough Thursday and SFF reflections on YouTube on Friday, I hope there'll be something for everyone.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/ch-ch-ch-changes-new-posting-schedule

Of all the inane arguments I've heard against gender fluidity, the Pope's latest has to be one of the most ridiculous: claiming that the world will be "dull" if not for stark divides between certain forms of masculinity and femininity in "fruitful tension". I totally get biological essentialism in some Abrahamic faiths (though not all, if you've ever talked to Reform rabbis!), but to suggest the world would be *duller* with more fluidity?!

Honey, tell me you've never lived without telling me.

Controlled burn in a nearby stretch of land adds a spooky, moody haze to the detritus-strewn back trail today.

Morning, CoSo.

Just off for a run..

Hope the weekend's starting well for all of you.

Tonight on the street a tot rushed over to hug me. Her mum, out begging, tried to apologize, explaining that the wee one remembered me from when I got them staples last month. But the child had just remembered a friendly face, and wanted to show me her cardboard box (boat? playhouse?). So we played a bit before rice, lentils, beans, & bread were acquired.

I find it very hard these days to be around our littlest ones without wanting to cry.

There is no excuse for the world we've made for them.

There are two hobbits in you: a Took and a Baggins.

Which one wins?

Whichever gets second breakfast.

“Well, I've made up my mind, anyway. I want to see mountains again, Gandalf--mountains; and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives prying around, and a string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.”

Happy birthday to @Merlin and @MelissaHDavis: two wonderful CoSonauts who are always generous with kindness and insight. Hope you're both having wonderful days, not at all filled with lousy Smarch weather!

I think I'll have two more articles before my final one, which goes up next Thursday with the formal announcement.

Trying to write that last one now, so I can focus on newsletter work next week, but I keep thinking I'm probably going to be the only one writing more than an "it's been a ride, thank you all, here's where to find me next" piece.

I think readers who stuck with the site deserve something more constructive.

But trying to find a good advocacy direction for what comes next is tough.

Mid-morning anger break.

Anyone care to join me in a scream?

Day 1 of the next phase.

I still have a couple of pieces to write for OS before it closes on Thursday. Including a "thanks for all the fish" post.

Just last night I was reading about other media layoffs, *on top* of the ones I wrote about last week.

The Intercept article I posted last night reflects the kind of coverage we simply don't have the media investment to sustain (by design).

The press *should* be more than amplifiers of PR, but how, in this economy?

Still, we keep going.

Somehow.

Anyway, I know many folks aren't ready to hear this yet.

It's painful and scary and confuses an already terrible and brutal situation.

Some of us need everything to be straightforward & mission-driven in war.

"Don't say anything that might give comfort to the enemy."

But we're going to be living with the consequences of these horrible war games for the rest of our lives.

It's never too late to start thinking about how to treat trauma with more integrity.

And to honour the victims justly. 🕯️

The first casualty of war is always the truth.

We've always known that.

What we don't seem to be prepared for, as a culture, is the hard fact that truth *continues* to be weaponized all throughout war. Even if one is "for" a side, one should never expect full truth from it.

And in this war? The families of the murdered and missing were never treated properly by their government. Their pain was leveraged right away.

Five months on, they're *still* trapped in others' war games. /x