Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
A Red-Letter Day April 25th is a complicated date. It is St Mark’s Day, which is honored with a wide variety of celebrations; and it is Robigalia, an ancient Roman festival intended to propitiate the god — or demon — of wheat rust and thus ensure a good harvest. These disparate themes may actually be… Continue reading The Daily: 25 April 2025
Earth Day Earth Day was created in 1970 as a direct political challenge. Wisconsin's Senator Gaylord Nelson wanted the US government to do what government is supposed to do — protect its people and lands from rapacious business. He created Earth Day and organized the first demonstrations across the country to force the hand of… Continue reading The Daily: 22 April 2025
The Daily for 29 March 2024: Hot cross buns!
The Season of Renewal This year, the Vernal Equinox happens on March 20th at 5:01am. This is, I think, the most nebulous of the solar festivals. Yes, it does mark an actual solar event, but it’s not the one we typically hear about. It’s not much of an event at all. This festival is less… Continue reading The Daily: 20 March 2025
St Joseph, Patron of Fatherhood To me Christianity seems to be rather quiet on Joseph, the husband of Mary and the step-father of their deity. That may be because I've never lived in an Italian neighborhood where Joe is the patron saint of roughly half the male population (though I did get a faint whiff… Continue reading The Daily: 19 March 2025
If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: you become better yourself. — Tolstoy in his Calendar of Wisdom on 17… Continue reading The Daily: 17 March 2025
It is Ash Wednesday. In the Christian calendar, this day inaugurates the fasts of Lent. This is holy time, a period of 46 days of cleansing and purging the body and soul before the celebration of Easter. The time echoes the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert before he went to his death. Originally,… Continue reading The Daily: 5 March 2025
Today is Mardi Gras. I don't much celebrate Fat Tuesday. I like the pancakes, but that's about it. I don't drink much, certainly not when I have to be at work in the morning. I've no use for purple plastic beads. There aren't any parades round these parts — because who wants to be standing… Continue reading The Daily: 4 March 2025
Lion and Lamb March is upon us once again. An Old English name for March was Hlyda, meaning “loud”, presumably referring to the roaring March winds. This name survived as Lide in the West countries. Eat leeks in Lide and ramsons in May, And all the year after physicians may play. — proverb from western… Continue reading The Daily: 1 March 2025
True stories don't end. They don't have a beginning, middle and end. No logical progression or growth or moral or even much of a plot. Stories about life are amorphous and constant quivering flux. People end. Characters end. People have a beginning, middle and end. So we tell peoples not stories. We narrate people. That's… Continue reading The Daily: 26 February 2025
