25-01-26 to 25-02-01QOTW
seeking, coping, hoping. how about you?
Image description: I am facing away from the camera, wearing red angel wings with an arm up, clad in a long red glove with feathers round the elbow. My hair is long and black down my back and my ass is bare. background is green sun and water. Photo by Charles Earl.
I’ve posted these on the cusp of T-day, the inauguration of Tonald Drumpf, ugh. are we on the verge of apocalypse, destruction, drastic bad change? possibly. i am hoping that the good folk somehow come together and work to changing the world for good. idk if this will happen, but i am trying to have hope, find hope, seek hope. These quotes are part of my seeking, coping, hoping.
Sunday
[…] we can’t save everyone, but we can help at least a few. Pick one to three things you can offer that might feel helpful to the world right now. Then do those things.
T. Thorn Coyle, newsletter on January 11, 2025 with regard to the LA fires.
Monday
I am once again navigating a life interruption, and more than ever, I want to indulge all the things I love—to give space and attention and care to my love of dogs, design, words, painting, and music. And I want to remember that nothing is ever wasted—like all those years I spent pursuing the double bass. By sixteen, I was spending six hours a day practicing the double bass, commuting to the city to attend Juilliard each week. I missed out on things like my high school prom in the name of becoming a professional musician. It’s sometimes tempting to think, “Oh, I wasted time on this thing that didn’t become anything.” But music informs every aspect of my life. It affects how I write: theme, rhythm, motif, and structure all come to bear on my prose. It brought me my husband, and now we have a home filled with music. If you’re open enough, flexible enough, and paying attention, you can see the poetry and the mystery in how things shake out.
The Isolation Journals with
, The Path Not TakenTuesday
People often suggest we quit our platforms; I stopped using Twitter because it's become a heavily manipulated right-wing hellscape, but THE IDEA WE SHOULD ALL GO SILENT AND BE UNABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER JUST AS AN INCOMING ADMINISTRATION THAT WOULD LOVE US TO BE SILENT, UNCONNECTED, AND DISENGAGED ARRIVES SEEMS LIKE AN INCREDIBLY BAD IDEA. Yeah, that boycott FB starting Sunday thing going around: No. Nope. Definitely not.
I've known Zuckerberg was evil and FB was a mess since at least 2016 (and have been telling you so on this very platform) and I'm not going anywhere. A lot of boycott ideas amount to "disengage, stand aside" and I want to see everyone do the opposite. There are boycotts that have an impact; this does not look like one either in impact or scale; a mid-size bunch of anti-Trumpists being very quiet is not powerful.
p.s. Don't click on ads and do keep criticizing Zuck and Meta. Be noisy.
Wednesday
When all else fails watch Moonstruck.
interesting true facts about life that still stand
Thursday
I believe that when you’re making a mix, you’re making history. You ransack the vaults, you haul off all the junk you can carry, and you rewire all your ill-gotten loot into something new.
Rob Sheffield, Love is a mix tape, as quoted by
in Love is a mixtape10 things worth sharing this week
Friday
Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream.
Josephine Neuse as quoted by
in Practical Self Reliance. Seed Starting (& Free Seed Catalogs). January is When the Garden Dream Starts.Saturday
I observe how much I have matured since last year despite my belief that I was losing myself, how something strong was born from the painful experiences survived and from the numerous minutes that I believed were wasted.
Simone de Beauvoir as quoted by Theoptia on Tumblr.
by the way, I have a Tumblr, it’s ancient. in fact, I thought it was long gone, but perhaps with all the rise of the billionaire assholes who run all the things turning into neo nazis, tumblr is a good space? idk, tbh, but here it is anyway. I’ll try to occasionally use it again…
If you have inspiring and intriguing quotes to share, please reach out. I’d love to include them here.
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Love your picks this week and what a gorgeous, powerful image!