Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I had a letter from a young reader last week, asking what I thought about concrete steps that we might be taking in place of what passes for activism in our present culture. It's a good question to ask, though I can't say that I'm the expert. Then again, maybe nobody is. Maybe there is… Continue reading The Daily: 27 June 2023
This past week I was reading an older book on the trauma of living within our culture and had another run-in with the theory that everything went to hell when humanity decided to farm. This book is old enough that the arguments against agriculture were still novel when it was written, so I forgave the… Continue reading The Daily: 26 June 2023
Tonight is the night that Shakespeare had faeries running amok in the woods around Athens. This is Midsummer's Night, tomorrow being Midsummer. Folklore has it that this is the best time to go find the Good Folk, though lore also makes it pretty clear that you may be in for trouble if you do. I… Continue reading The Daily: 23 June 23
June 22nd is the feast day of St Alban, one of the first British martyrs to the Christian faith, a sort of protomartyr, in fact. It is said that Alban was beheaded by Roman authorities on this date, though the year this happened may be any time between 209 and 304. Stained-glass portrait of St… Continue reading The Daily: 22 June 2023
Summer Solstice Today is the solstice; today, the sun stands still. Well, actually, if you've read much of anything I've written, you know that it's been standing still for a few days now, and it will continue to do so for a few more days. From 17 June to 25 June, day length is 15… Continue reading The Daily: 21 June 2023
Tonight is the shortest night of the year. Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to note the difference even with a very flat horizon that reveals the exact moment of sunrise. Exact moments are difficult to catch even when you have fine-scale time notation and more than one set of eyes on the task, one for… Continue reading The Daily: 20 June 2023
Juneteenth Today is Juneteenth. Specifically, today is the second anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday and the 158th anniversary of the reading of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger. This was the order which served as the Texas version of the Emancipation Proclamation, a full two years after President Lincoln and… Continue reading The Daily: 19 June 2023
Today is Father's Day in the US. I am ambivalent about both Sundays dedicated to our immediate forebears. I sometimes buy my mom little things for her garden or kitchen. I write my dad long emails which is his favorite mode of communication these days. I don't buy greeting cards or gifts and don't expect… Continue reading The Daily: 18 June 2023
A Love Story for Bloomsday Thomas Bloom was a professor. Business. He was not remarkable looking, talking, feeling, or thinking. The only remarkableness about Tom was an enormous lack of remarkableness. Bored freshmen amused themselves by pretending this apparent unremarkability constituted a cover for a secret identity of intrigue. Only for amusement. Could they have… Continue reading The Daily: 16 June 2023
June 15th, the Ides of June, was the last day of Vestalia. With great ceremony, the sanctuary of Vesta was cleansed and closed to the public for another year, the sustaining Vestal hearth-flame hidden behind walls that no man was allowed to pass. This is a slack time, a time when heat is intolerable and… Continue reading The Daily: 15 June 2023
By My Solitary Hearth 