Okay, I'm giving up on finishing Rewind Wednesday.

As ever, I'm choosing data precision over rushing to hit the midnight deadline. Too many sources I want to check and firm up before this piece in particular - and then one more run-through to make sure that my language is careful and clear. I'm talking about the importance of honouring the dead with the truth, after all.

So, this'll be my "Thorough Thursday", and...

🤔 Maybe a nice bonus piece on Sunday? A short story after such a heavy week?

I'm grateful this morning for everyone who sat with me in my world-grief.

I now need to put on shoes and go greet the rest of the world.

Be well, be kind, and keep doing the things you need to do to keep being here at all.

Some days "seeking justice where you can" is going to look more like remembering to hydrate and move the soft animal of your body, and that's okay, too. 🕊️

I was feeling a little out of it yesterday--gaining a serious allergic reaction to Jingoism, methinks. All the people wavering between "let's goooo!" and "that's it?!" had me sick to my stomach, but I know the armchair-warrior eagerness for war is just another form of trauma.

Here was Tough Times Tuesday: a reflection on how much we need to adjust to life under climate change.

Today's piece will come later. It's a tough one, on how we've abused the memories of the dead.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-myth-of-climate-havens-is-bursting

#CoSoWriters #Zine

This Friday I'm putting out a full call for the next TWO issues of abZurd, since we have a range of ideas already.

Generally speaking, we'll have #Ekphrasis and #Conviviality as core themes in the first (plus a crossword from @Boyceaz!) and #Limerence and #CoSoAfterDark in the second (with thanks to @AndersonArtwork, @JGSchaeffer, and @Valkyrie_D for the inspiration!).

So get your creative hats going!
Hope punk, solar punk, and #CoSo communal living to be celebrated soon! 🥳

I have decided that, for this spooky season, I am going as the living (scifi) embodiment of class warfare. 😁

Morlocks matter, too!
#MorlocksRights
#IfEloiWerentSoTastyTheyWouldntGetEt

Noticed a memorial in the skate park this morning:

"Skate united us and over time fortified an invaluable friendship, so many memories and moments we shared. Unique and highly valuable moments for each of your friends. SKATE FOREVER. We will always remember you and your lessons we'll keep in our hearts, as a counsel to wake up every morning with moral [virtue], as you always reminded us. 'Let's give it [our all] with [honesty/integrity], boys!"

Juan Esteban Cortés 1988-2024

❤️ What a tribute.

I love that my building (and so many like it here) routinely posts notices about how to live with other people well.

"Yo Soy Un Buen Vecino": I am a good neighbour.

I mean, some of these reminder posts are hilarious - reminding kids how to use the elevators respectfully, & pet owners to clean up after their animals - but this one covers the basics: seek dialogue and reconciliation, respect human dignity and difference, the rights of other humans.

Easy on a local level.
Tough on a global one!

October, my loves.

Who's got a new handle in mind for this witchy month? 🤔 Going for a run, and then I'll get spooky myself.

I have some mindless data entry tonight, and I'm in a no-nonsense 70s mood for a background flick.

Should I watch Three Days of the Condor (Redford & Dunaway), The Last Detail (Nicholson & Quaid), Get Carter (Michael Caine, baby!) or Straight Time (Hoffman! Busey! Stanton! Bates!)?

#CoSoFilms

And the rest of me, probably, too.

#Zoomies after 4 hours of Zoom!

I NEED TO MOVE MY LEGS.

😂 Okay, I have to laugh--and then I'm into meetings for the next four hours.

This is a THANK YOU letter I got from Colombia's tax service, DIAN, for submitting my taxes on time.

Funny how Canada never used to send me similar, but... do you see the # under the arrow?

Only 4.6 million of the 52 million inhabitants in #Colombia paid on time this year. Which is fair, considering that half the economy is informal, but no wonder they're sending thank-you notes to those who can and do pay on time! 😂

Today's Monday Media Review is a rough one.

In it, we discuss a recent incident at an Israeli school, and a recent documentary about a settler youth cult in the West Bank.

It should be much easier to talk about how young people have been victimized by this war, but because propaganda has trained people to rationalize the deaths of "enemy" children, it's harder than ever to talk about how this war poisons everyone involved.

And yet, that's precisely what we need to do.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/what-we-have-done-to-our-children

Okay, enough stalling. Now the ugly piece that I'm not looking forward to writing.

(One of three this week, actually. I will choose something lighter for Thursday.)

TTFN, you wonderful wastrels!

Since today got Very Philosophical on CoSo, let's end with something sillier.

In my house growing up, to make light of oneself after saying something intelligent, we'd point to our heads and say "kidneys".

What's an expression that only makes sense to your family / local in-group?

#RandomQuestions