Living

Introductions

SOMETHING HOLY/TENDER/FRAGILE/GIDDY THERE IS ABOUT someone introducing a member of one world to a member of another: as, one’s relatives to one’s colleagues, one’s colleagues to one’s friends, one’s friends to one’s relatives.

It’s more than just a person-to-person connection. We embroider each other with so many memories and associations that it’s sometimes difficult to see who we’re looking at. Introductions help us clear away the clutter. We can’t help but see what and how the introducee sees: someone new to learn, some bigger but unglimpsed circle to explore.

Our worlds have edges. Introductions show us where they are; and, sometimes, melt into more world.

Torah

Instant Everywhere

FOR MY NEXT TRICK, I shall unite the Universe.

Ready?

It is Now as I write this; it is Now as you read it.

(Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll be here all week.)

Living

5 Thoughts: The Solstice Eclipse

1. A CORRECT USE OF FACEBOOK is evidenced by all the pictures my friends took of last night’s eclipse. (Also nice: Chanukah’s virtual latke banquet.)

2. The overhead wonder was no less wondrous for being swathed in translucifying cloud at 0145 local (PST).

3. A good many of my friends are pagans, poets, artists or other types of beautiphile whose inspiration at times like these is also wondrous. I am supremely thankful, at these seasons no less than others, to be surrounded by so many intelligent and creative people.

4. Speaking of which, solstice is a good time to ponder cycles and time in general: say, how life is lived by the big circle in the universe instead of the little one on the wall.

5. Winter solstice even more pondered: how the dark reaches its depth for one half of the world, even as the other experiences summer’s greatest light. Omnia vincit lux! and whatever you celebrate, celebrate the living daylights out of it.

Etc

Fezzini for Foreign Policist

“HA HA! YOU FOOL! YOU fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia!‘ But only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha–”
— Fezzini, The Princess Bride. Granted, he was trying to start a war at the time…

Living

Viral Into Life

WE’VE ALL SEEN THOSE VIDEOS of people semi-spontaneously bursting into song in public places, to the bemusement, amusement, and eventual participation of the earshot citizenry.

Let’s take it offline, folks. Bust into song. Right now. Wherever you are and with whoever will join you.

Spontaneous worldwide singing may just be what saves us all. We’ve tried everything else, right?

Etc, Living

Fear of Fear Ourselves

WE ARE FROZEN INTO SOCIETAL uselessness through fear of liability: who’s responsible, what are the ramifications, an obsessive-compulsive moral handwash. Perhaps that’s one reason scapegoating is so popular: release of tension. Everything flows when the ice is cracked with a lusty “Get ’em, boys!”