Still stops my heart and moves me to tears. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAK7...

AccuWeather said we had about 30 minutes to the storm, so I took Argyll out. Ten minutes into the walk, the sky got so black I feared we’d get drenched. We finished the walk, shut up the car, collapsed outdoor umbrellas, and got in with 9 minutes to spare. It’s coming down in sheets and towels.

In the period immediately following the Civil War, Black men held office. Schools were built. Wealth was accumulated. It was called Reconstruction. White Americans dismantled it. They retaliated not because Reconstruction failed, but because it was working. That pattern is repeating today.

The U.S. church didn't just fail to oppose racism. In many cases, it organized to defend it. Pastors wrote the theology. Denominations drew the lines. And they called it faithful Christianity. We can see the pattern again today with white Christian nationalism.

I love the poetry of Ilya Kaminsky. This is perfect for this moment. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Lesson from mystery novels: If someone dies in unusual circs & you’re worried abt sth you want to discuss w/ the detective, ALWAYS do it right away, even by phone. Don’t arrange to meet in person later today. Your life depends on this.

I share a birthday with Marin Marais and Walt Whitman, but today I'm thinking of the massacred of Tulsa and the drowned of Johnstown, who lost their lives on this date to greed and, in the case of Tulsa, white supremacy.

The nearly full moon is peering through the trees just over the lip of the hill I’m on. Bright enough to distract from floodlights, even though he is (I think) at his farthest off this year.

Yup.

Hereby drawing attention to the decency, integrity, and dignity of Andy Kim

I am blocking every account that begs for money, as well as those that tag me into those posts. Perhaps some of these are genuine, but I cannot tell. And I have extremely limited resources and cannot help everyone. Anyone have a better way to handle these posts? I’m listening.

Battlefield Band Máire Brennan Marta Argerich Hillary Hahn Ignat Solzhenitsyn Imani Winds Renée Fleming Tallis Scholars Ruth Naomi Floyd Preservation Hall Jazz Band (incl.Percy Humphrey, Wendell Brunious, Frank Demond, & Narvin Kimball)

Uh oh. We’ve indicted Raul Castro, and are urging Cubans to side with our dictator against their government. Guess we need another illegal war to distract from the illegal war started to distract from the illegal redactions & non-release of the Epstein files.

Rainbow!

One of my favorite spots along the walking trail looks —and sounds—much different an hour into daylight than it does late in the day when the sun is coming from behind me.

Forecast is a sticky 95°, so Argyll & I walked early atone of our favorite trails. I prefer evening, near sundown. An hour after sunup the light comes from a different direction so you notice different things. Old glass insulators. The weariness of the Watchers. The freshness of the flowers.

Bright mango sky striped with faded cornflower.

unfortunately, kim il sung's clothes hang a lot better

Really lovely short essay on reading. "To read is to make the word flesh again. When you read, you cathect your selfhood, your humanity, your autonomy, what philosophers call your “ipseity,” into inert marks and turn them into living things. When you read, you don’t decode—you incarnate."

Waiting to pick Argyll up after her adventure with the avocado pit. She’s going to be ok but it was a stressful (and costly) several days.

This miscreant ate an avocado pit yesterday. This morning we go back to the vet for more x-rays and maybe surgery.

Bishop visit today. In theory, good idea. In practice: he hijacks the service with excess pontificating, and insists on dragging each confirmand off to the side for a 5 min. pastoral lecture—DURING the service. Today: he commandeered about an hour. Even with stripped bare liturgy we ran 55 min. long

Not quite my favorite time of day, but nearly. It’s a glorious spring day. Would we could keep this! #spring #joy #beautyinnature.

My favorite spot on this walking trail. Sound on to hear why.

Conservatives on the Supreme Court and their allies are re-creating the very conditions that made the Voting Rights Act necessary in the first place.

The rising moon is as stunning as any I’ve seen. Round, orange as persimmon flesh, it’s sitting on the fringes of the trees.

The Crazy Woman Gwendolyn Brooks I shall not sing a May song. A May song should be gay. I'll wait until November And sing a song of gray. I'll wait until November That is the time for me. I'll go out in the frosty dark

Why art thou cast down o my pup, And why art thou disquieting my knee? Hope thou in potato chips And they may yet come to thee.

Rainbow!!!! Part of it runs across blue sky before disappearing in a patch of clouds. #joy

Argyll and her person when the sun finally popped out.

Paulownia blossoms always make me think of dolphins who've come up for a breath and are diving back into the water.

There is an unhappy child in the adjacent library study room who sounds like they are about 8 and probably male. They just burst into wailing, and the adult's response was "Shush. Someone will hear you." Not the message I'd vote to give a young child.

Never gets old! This was twice im 2 days, from the bed OF an old RR. #train #joy

I listen to every episode, but gotta say this one was special.

Off east the sky is a placid pool of guava nectar.

Qualified or not, the middle of a war--which we could not be in without the navy-- seems a bad moment to empty the post.

TIL that almonds, pistachios, and pecans are not nuts, botanically speaking.

Disappointed to have no choices on this ballot, I voted. Primary election is May 19.

Patriarchy in one image. Women train. Women win, and men hog the limelight.

“The subject of Miss Clovis’s quarrel with the President was known only to a privileged few and even those knew no more than that it had something to do with the making of tea. Not that the making of tea can ever really be regarded as a petty or trivial matter,

Argyll is a very unhappy camper thanks to a vet visit for vaccines. But I got tomsee my favorite bit of wall art there: the eye chart for dogs.

Another marvelous poem from Linda Pastan’ Traveling Light.

Power went out here at the library, apparently with someone in the elevator. Fire truck is pulling up now.

In the last 18 hours the sky has slung hail, heavy rain, blasting sun, cold wind, balmy breezes, and mini snowballs at me. I was most surprised by the hail, which fell from clouds that were fleeing eastwards, leaving puffy clouds colored rainbow shades by the sunset, and by the mini snowballs.

Nearly 500 public figures are reading the Bible this week in Washington, D.C. to mark America’s 250th. You can’t proclaim “love your neighbor” while supporting policies that harm the vulnerable. The Bible isn’t a prop for national identity. It’s a call to justice.

The crescent moon and Venus seem to be playing the Pit or the Pendulum together.

“The past is the underside of the future.” Linda Pastan “Return to Maple 9”

Credit those doing the work. Not just the big names through which you learn of the work.

How could I post just one?

The worse things get the more I need poetry. From Linda Pastan, Traveling Light