Reading: Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell 📚

Meanwhile, back in 1941…

Mankind cannot accept the ultimate triumph of evil, untruth, and violence—it simply cannot live with them. The world resulting from a Hitler victory would be not only a world of universal slavery, but also a world of absolute cynicism, a world which would find it impossible to believe in the higher and better in man any longer., a world which would belong completely to evil and be subject to evil. The revolt of humanity against a Hitler world filled with the utmost despair of spirit and good—this revolt is the most certain of certainties. — Thomas Mann

From this morning’s walk…

Reading: Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell 📚

Happiness is the only good The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

— Robert G. Ingersol

Made it to the Block!

Smooth sailing to point Judith. Waiting to back the car onto the ferry…

Off to Block Island at sunrise…

Something Is Afoot

In the church of secular capitalist society, science is the god. And indeed, there is a lot of pure faith involved in the belief in science. So, if the god of modern capitalist society is in trouble, it suggests that something is afoot.

Something Is Afoot

From my latest long form post:

The present war is not just on women. It is on any community that challenges the white patriarchal structure. It’s a war on race, it’s a war on gender, it’s a war on sexuality. It’s a war on the values of Enlightenment Humanism which are the foundation of democratic government. It’s a war on democracy itself.

PBGV best in show at Westminster! We’ve had two in our dog stewardship lifetime.

Our PBGV Chas is 9 years old. He’s taking it in stride…

Reading: Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell 📚

Thus, in effect, a state that enforces a particular belief is denying people the right to be fully human.

From the past few days….

Something is Afoot

Replacing Feudalism with Capitalism is a process that took two to three hundred years. In reviewing the history and writing about it, historians identify and describe to us the broad trends unfolding. It is difficult, maybe impossible, to see such trends clearly in the history we live. This is the reason to study history. To get a perspective that gives us some ability to assess our times, identify trends and project those trends into the future.

If you are in or near Wappingers Falls, NY, come hear 12 writers read their original short stories based on the photographs of Margo Kingon! I am one of them…

One of my favorite beach rocks…

From the past few days…

Heather Cox Richardson

Re: Justice Thomas

Those decisions dramatically undermined our democracy. It now seems imperative to grapple with the fact it appears a key vote on the court that decided those cases was compromised.

My True Potential

I have learned from firsthand experience what women have known for generations. The work of my true potential is enormously undervalued. And yet, it’s important and profoundly satisfying work, at least to me.

My True Potential

Homemaking and art? That’s woman’s work as far as my generation is concerned. Progress is being made on that front by each of the generations that are following me, but art and homemaking? That would have branded me a “pussy.” In fact, it still does with men and women closer to my generation. Being taken care of financially by a woman? Pussy!

Reading: Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici 📚

The definition of women as demonic beings, and the atrocious and humiliating practices to which many of them were subjected left indelible marks in the collective female psyche and in women’s sense of possibilities.

From yesterday and today…

My True Potential

My art photography is a spiritual devotion to seeing. Daily meditative walks are the backbone of it. Insight develops over time.

Reading: Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici 📚

I only want to stress that by denying women control over their bodies, the state deprived them of the most fundamental condition for physical and psychological integrity and degraded maternity to the status of forced labor…

As I read the remarkable parallels between the Middle Ages and the present moment I wonder what bigger than we realize thing is at work.

Reading: Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici 📚

The criminalization of women’s control over procreation is a phenomenon whose importance cannot be overemphasized, both for the viewpoint of its effects on women and the consequences for the capitalist organization of work.

You’d be forgiven if you thought this was about the present moment in the USA. It’s actually about the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

From this morning’s walk…

My True Potential

Folding laundry is a mindfulness practice as far as I am concerned. Cooking is a spiritual practice of deep devotion, and feeding someone a profound act of love. Doing it daily is a devotional practice of love.