no subject
2/22/26 11:09 am
Resistance Lab
1/24/26 04:42 pmPramila Jayapal will host another Zoom call - "Special Edition Resistance Lab: Stand for [Renee] Good" - tomorrow (Sunday) at 11am (Pacific) / 2pm (Eastern).
This will be the 3rd one I've attended. It's a good place to go to feel hope instead of despair.
Go to her website to register and get a Zoom link.
This will be the 3rd one I've attended. It's a good place to go to feel hope instead of despair.
Go to her website to register and get a Zoom link.
the obligation...
3/11/25 03:18 pmThe Obligation to Be Happy
by Linda Pastan
It is more onerous
than the rites of beauty
or housework, harder than love.
But you expect it of me casually,
the way you expect the sun
to come up, not in spite of rain
or clouds but because of them.
And so I smile, as if my own fidelity
to sadness were a hidden vice—
that downward tug on my mouth,
my old suspicion that health
and love are brief irrelevancies,
no more than laughter in the warm dark
strangled at dawn.
Happiness. I try to hoist it
on my narrow shoulders again—
a knapsack heavy with gold coins.
I stumble around the house,
bump into things.
Only Midas himself
would understand.
by Linda Pastan
It is more onerous
than the rites of beauty
or housework, harder than love.
But you expect it of me casually,
the way you expect the sun
to come up, not in spite of rain
or clouds but because of them.
And so I smile, as if my own fidelity
to sadness were a hidden vice—
that downward tug on my mouth,
my old suspicion that health
and love are brief irrelevancies,
no more than laughter in the warm dark
strangled at dawn.
Happiness. I try to hoist it
on my narrow shoulders again—
a knapsack heavy with gold coins.
I stumble around the house,
bump into things.
Only Midas himself
would understand.
joe brainard poem
12/6/24 06:35 pmArt
Looking through a book of drawings by Holbein I realize several moments of truth. A nose (a line) so nose-like. So line-like. And then I think to myself "so what?" It's not going to solve any of my problems. And then I realize that at the very moment of appreciation I had no problems. Then I decide that this is a pretty profound thought. And that I ought to write it down. This is what I have just done. But it doesn't sound so profound anymore. That's art for you.
(by Joe Brainard)
Looking through a book of drawings by Holbein I realize several moments of truth. A nose (a line) so nose-like. So line-like. And then I think to myself "so what?" It's not going to solve any of my problems. And then I realize that at the very moment of appreciation I had no problems. Then I decide that this is a pretty profound thought. And that I ought to write it down. This is what I have just done. But it doesn't sound so profound anymore. That's art for you.
(by Joe Brainard)
Anders Carlson-Wee
11/10/23 11:27 amAnders Carlson-Wee: I really like this man’s poems. I read about him in THE SUN MAGAZINE’s November issue this morning.
https://www.anderscarlsonwee.com/writing (links to many of his poems on his website)
And just now I found this short documentary (16 min) about him and his brother (Kai Carlson-Wee) hopping trains:
https://youtu.be/WQVwVtaS-MU?si=JcpgWg9hP37qsEVk
which is just another way to take the Trip West that Wayne and I just did and recognizing (re-living) the scenery that they filmed.
I took this picture because I loved seeing these trains that were rusted to the colors of the land surrounding them - and when we would cross a bridge over a train-yard I would look down searching the open cars for a glimpse of Steve or anyone - but I never saw a soul.
https://www.anderscarlsonwee.com/writing (links to many of his poems on his website)
And just now I found this short documentary (16 min) about him and his brother (Kai Carlson-Wee) hopping trains:
https://youtu.be/WQVwVtaS-MU?si=JcpgWg9hP37qsEVk
which is just another way to take the Trip West that Wayne and I just did and recognizing (re-living) the scenery that they filmed.
I took this picture because I loved seeing these trains that were rusted to the colors of the land surrounding them - and when we would cross a bridge over a train-yard I would look down searching the open cars for a glimpse of Steve or anyone - but I never saw a soul.
it is hereby prohibited...
11/20/22 07:16 pm“It is hereby prohibited for any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or deformed in any way so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object to expose himself to public view.”
- 1911 City of Chicago Ordinance -
(found in book Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out)
- 1911 City of Chicago Ordinance -
(found in book Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out)
