#CoSoMusic

K'naan is best known for "Waving Flag", but he lived through some terrible survivor's guilt - getting out of a war-torn situation, leaving family behind because he couldn't save them.

I feel that pain every time I liste to this counsel, that we just need to "Take A Minute".

"And any man who know a thing know he don't know a damn damn thing at all. And every time I felt the hurtin' I felt the givin' get me off the wall.."

https://youtu.be/APw9ES0JpZo

#CoSoMusic

And as a good chaser?

I always go back to Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" - with the original video, which reminds me how much our global crises have NOT changed in 50 years.

We have better gadgets.
But do we have better humanity?

"Make me wanna holla - the way they do my life! This ain't livin', this ain't livin'..."

https://youtu.be/57Ykv1D0qEE

#CoSoMusic
#GoNotGentlyPlaylist

Now THIS is the kind of song I resonate with deeply. It comes from hard-won experience of how difficult life is.

One thing that has *broken* me this past month is not all the horrible videos I've watched to debunk and assess the complexity of war this past month alone... but the keyboard warriors. The people treating this as a game.

We are wounded and it is OKAY to rage.

Just remember what, exactly, you're raging against when you do.
https://youtu.be/bcsCc2kKMUo

This might be the corniest post I ever share, because Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" is so generic and presented from an extremely privileged position - but it's also motivated a lot of folks, because it has a great vibe.

So... I'm going to create a thread of songs that actually inspire me, but this opener is a universal favourite - and a huge invitation to add your own.

What moves you forward (spiritual songs welcome too) when the world feels too hard?

#CoSoMusic

https://youtu.be/xo1VInw-SKc

Okay, the latest Ologies is fun, too.

Neuroparasitology!

On the abundance of parasites and parasitoids in our world, and the way their experience of life highlights evolution's indifference to the construction of what we humans consider kinder outcomes.

We have an opportunity in this cosmos to rise above tribalist conditioning, & other violence that nature makes easy. Though some biochem does prime us to care, it's still extraordinary whenever we do.

#Science #Nature
https://pca.st/episode/87c280af-1d2c-4fe7-9a14-b2a1079db498

Heading out for a walk before classes.

A quick note:

The feeds seem quieter today - but that also feels like a good thing.

On other forums, I see people posting about all kinds of inane things--tempests in teapots, in a world of so much active hurt--and it's disorienting.

Sometimes a little quiet is good for our health.

Social media algorithms driven by ragebait helped us forget that for a while.

Here we can remember.

Thanks for sitting quietly together, when the world calls for that too.

This one is also more for fellow Canadians - though I think other literary folks here might find some fun in this too: The latest New Yorker Fiction Podcast is a recording from a live event, and Margaret Atwood can barely control her laughter at some of Mavis Gallant's wry lines. Good for a getaway from the harsh world - not into something frivolous, so much as differently wise.

#Podcasts #Literature

https://pca.st/episode/c70e91df-7b68-483d-808e-54ace0ee95ea

Canadians, assemble!

Apparently these deep-core blobs, possibly originating from the hypothesized planet Theia that crashed into Earth billions of years ago, are called "large low-velocity provinces".

Which province in Canada best fits that description, too?

#Space #Science #News https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/01/blobs-near-earths-core-are-remnants-of-collision-with-another-planet-study-says

Also, I hope everyone had a good Halloween! 🎃

I had another day of struggle yesterday - major headache, very groggy - but I've implemented a change that I hope will improve energy levels.

So far so good this morning!

Going to get that second overdue newsletter out next, then move on to the rest of this week's writing. 💪 How's November starting for all of you?

Morning, loves. 🕯️

How are your hearts?

As promised, one of the "heavy" pieces this week. Took a while, but for good reason--

Today, I highlight the hypocrisy around how antisemitism is leveraged by right-wing media, now that it has a left-wing target. But the rot of anti-Jewish rhetoric, along with other forms of hate, runs much deeper.

We will never be rid of this stain on humanity if we don't own up to how much we "use" anti-hate advocacy for other ends. #Humanism https://onlysky.media/mclark/antisemitism-for-me-but-not-for-thee/

I have two newsletter pieces that I have simply been editing and rewriting for days between work tasks. My brain is just... being weird with them.

Two classes tonight, and then I'll post both (for paid subscribers). I mean, there's only so much fussing and hedging and rewriting a body can do... right? Right? 🙃

(A part of me thinks my brain is stalling because my two OnlySky pieces this week will be heavy stuff. But tough nuts, brain! Buck up! Use that pancake energy well!)

Routine reminder that we are filled with frustration at the state of the world - not each other.

And we're going to snap at times. I'm currently fighting the same silly stress headache that I've had for days, so I'm counting it as a win that I haven't vent-posted everything I've wanted to today. 🙃

Just... remember that we can come back from our lows. Others can, too.

So aim for compassion, eh?

We're swimming in rough waters - but if we're still swimming at all, that makes us the lucky ones.

#Ukraine #War

"The usual sparkle of his optimism, his sense of humor, his tendency to liven up a meeting in the war room with a bit of banter or a bawdy joke, none of that has survived into the second year of all-out war. “Now he walks in, gets the updates, gives the orders, and walks out,” says one ... Another tells me that, most of all, Zelensky feels betrayed by his Western allies. They have left him without the means to win the war, only the means to survive it."

https://time.com/6329188/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-interview/

#Death #War #MediaLiteracy

And I don't know if everyone wants to read this sort of thing, but here's an interview with the director for the National Center of Forensic Medicine, explaining some of the work they do. (It's milder than the debrief video, though the video was data-rich.)

They still have around 200 un-ID'd bodies, & little hope of being able to ID them all - but they're going to keep trying.

Life is not like CSI shows.
Re-post forensic details carefully!

https://archive.ph/grqo1

#Death #War #MediaLiteracy

Other notes:

Keeping up with the dead across the board is a strange affair. You scroll through mass death lists and your eyes alight on a photo that wasn't there before, a story that hadn't been added last time. You find yourself smiling at the style the dead had, in life. Seeing the family resemblance, especially in the families entirely struck down in Gaza and Israel alike.

We have lost so many human beings this terrible month.

Take good care of yours. 💙

#Death #War #MediaLiteracy

The latest updates for Israel's ID'd dead now sit at 933, 584 civ, 23 under 18 (though more for sure, because photos of 3 young teens had no ages).

No child identified as such is under 4, which speaks to some of the mess of war. Israel's X handle shared a photo of toddlers in happier times, & Netanyahu's gov't shared a shot baby and a burned one.

It's a fragile wartime line for familial dignity. No babies' names & photos released--but the anonymized trauma, shared.