Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I made the mistake of watching some of the Olympics last week. Except for brief YouTube intrusions in the music I listen to while working, I haven’t watched programming with advertisements in several years. I don’t like the disruption to my attention, and of course I despise the goal behind advertising generally. I don’t watch… Continue reading On Beauty
Like many people, I find the American version of Valentine’s Day and the saccharine and monochromatic view of love it promotes to be repulsive. In my younger days I assumed the whole farce was invented by the greeting card and gifting industry, along with the rise of all manner of fake holidays intended to get… Continue reading Of Hearts and Wolves
As we wade into the center of February and prepare for the rites of Lupercalia and the newly rising spring, I thought I might allow Eliza Daley to take a Friday break and speak plainly as myself. Or as plainly as I am able. I do not think she is fitting for what I would… Continue reading Love Notes
I need to change things again. Wednesday Word is just not working for me. Or maybe it’s that it’s just work for me. Maybe. I do like the format, but it’s not doing what I’d like. Furthermore, I’ve been having problems with Twitter, presumably because I use phrases like “climate justice” and “degrowth” and “reparations”… Continue reading The Times They Are a’Changin’ (again)
In our culture we do not believe in objective truth. We believe the words of those of high rank. Lies are told by those with power and we accept them as truth in the face of our own experience. We can’t believe in objective truth, objective right or wrong, objective benefit or destruction. We can’t… Continue reading The Land of Lies
If Candlemas be bright and clear there'll be two winters in the year. — traditional adage from Scotland There are many weather marking days throughout the year. Candlemas, falling on 2 February, was the day that our ancestors began to get nervous about the spring. A fine Candlemas portends a bad harvest and winter dearth;… Continue reading Candlemas: Spring Forecast
February 1st is Imbolg or St Brigid’s Feast Day. Imbolg is an ancient and somewhat forgotten holiday that falls midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Hence it is the first of the four cross quarter days, the days marking the half way points between the solar quarter days (solstices and equinoctes). The… Continue reading Imbolg: Beginning of Beginning
For obvious reasons, we are under the impression that American democracy is failing. This is not precisely true. American democracy is working exactly as designed. What is failing is our centralized system of top-down governance over a large and diverse territory. American-style democracy is humming along just fine; it's our country that is cracking apart.… Continue reading Not a Democracy
Today is my birthday. I am not going to say which one, but that’s more because I like my privacy rather than any particular problems with aging. I like being an elder. Prefer it even. I still have to deal with boomers patting me on the head and pretending that I’m a child so that… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 26 January
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity David Graeber & David Wengrow Farrer, Straus & Giroux: 2021 The Dawn of Everything was a revelation. The “Everything” from the title may not exactly refer to our past, but it surely may refer to a sweeping revision of how we see ourselves. If so, it… Continue reading The Dawn of Everything: Review
By My Solitary Hearth 