#Poetry

@LiseL and I promised to share more poetry this year, but we're not exclusive - so happy reading to all.

The tragedy isn't that
we don't get out of this alive.

The tragedy is that we so rarely see
how we shone while we were here.

#Flutterby #Nature

General shout-out to @Graci, while I'm at it:

She's easily one of the most steadfast, compassionate, and *present* among us - and a truly lovely person outside of all that she provides in the way of daily updates about how the world is treating some of the most easily maligned among us.

Thank you Graci - just for being you. 💜

This is silly, I know.

This past Christmas was my first in years when I couldn't go out with hampers for street folk.

Too much debt.

And yet, the person who left us posted about doing *such* good deeds at Xmas.

And I'll never know how much truth there was in that. Did this person help people closer to home? Or was their world-grief after donating a lie?

At the time, I was comforted by the thought that someone else was helping even when I couldn't.

That comfort feels very, very bitter now.

#CoSoNightShift representin'. 🎉

Who all up?

What you up to? 👀

#NotABootyCall
#JustExcitedToHaveWiFiBack

My router was clearly also listening to tree.fm, because my internet's been off and on all day. At this rate, my timely news brief has to be transformed into a deeper humanist analysis for tomorrow. Oh well.

Currently salvaging a bit of work time by writing out drafts longform at the mall before classes, but I really need to finish some overdue paid work ASAP so I can take tomorrow off for laptop repair across town.

Anyway, here's a new *very* Colombian cereal. So I got a chuckle in, at least.

One of you fine folks recommended a site for listening to random forests of the world, and I slept the best sleep I've had in weeks - so big thanks to you for that.

I'm already behind on everything today!
But--restfully so.

So, again, thank you. 🙃

https://www.tree.fm/

Sigh.

Sometimes there's more hurt than we can sit with on any given day.

A big ol' hug to whoever needs it. 🫂

All right! Coriolanus time.

This is a perfect play for thinking about all the ways we reduce state politics to simplistic powerplays.

As always, part of the essay is free-to-read: that includes analysis of the 2011 film, to connect Shakespeare's play to today's war-weary world.

Then paid subscribers get to dive into Shakespeare's version, Plutarch's version, Livy's version, and what each history reveals to us about what "the state" really contains.

(Hint: A LOT more.)
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/coriolanus-and-coriolanus-and-coriolanus

I ask because, hilariously, one of mine is in this episode.

"What's your favourite conspiracy theory?" can yield a great conversation... or bring out a lot of toxic worldviews very quickly. (I learned about a Colombian version of blood libel myth this way. 🙃)

Do you have a litmus test question?

Not necessarily for dating - I'm thinking about general interactions with new people. (But if the dating bit applies, go for it.)

Is there a question you ask that gives you a sense of whether there might be friction between you two in the future, but which is innocuous enough that the other person doesn't feel interrogated here and now?

https://pca.st/episode/3da86c2e-7a0d-4cdf-87fe-c6586570d8d1

Amusingly:

My father's first thought, when I told him I was going to move: "Don't join a cartel!" Dead serious. Was afraid I'd been recruited. 😅

Second thought: "How are you going to raise 3 kids in Colombia?" Also serious, because even though I've been clear about no kids since 17, he'd been harbouring the idea that I'd eventually come around and give 3 of my nephews 3 cousins. 🙄

But hey! Still not in a cartel, & I haven't brought children into my struggling life for "balance". #SmallWins 🥳

🙃 The sheer incuriosity of family about where I live. To them, even after all this time, there's the West and then there's... everything else.

My laptop lost a T tonight. Deeper than a cleaning problem, so I'll be off to the mall tomorrow. Silly computer. Hopefully replacing the key / keyboard will be the last thing I need to do for it for a while.

Hooked up to the desktop keyboard for now, though - so nice try, Universe! You're not stopping me from finishing my work that easily.

(No jinx. 🤞🤞)

I have friends across the cosmological spectrum, & I'm thankful when they feel comfortable telling me how they're managing in these rough times.

I have a deeply devout Catholic friend who truly treats everyone in a love-thy-neighbour way, & he told me he's been praying more for souls in purgatory these last few difficult years.

In his faith, that's a pretty logical way to cope with so many folks dying in hard ways without being "saved".

We grieve in different ways.

But, oh, we do all grieve.

#Writers know this feeling of success.

I sent along my cleaned-up novel manuscript to a dear supporter who surprised me with a very kind donation, and she's reading it with such joy that she's dropped the published book she was given for Christmas.

Obviously, it would be very nice for my agent to like my novel, and take it to presses that bid wildly over it, and maybe finally have a chance of getting myself unstuck, but...

You cannot put a price tag on one reader's joy. 💛 Readers are a gift.

@Alfred are you available right now to help me draft a letter?