Something to think on …

Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.

—  Thomas Szasz, born on this date in. 1920

RIP …

… Ian Tyson, Canadian Folk Great Who Wrote ‘Four Strong Winds,’ Dead at 89.

I saw him, not long before I retired, when I covered the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, for The Inquirer.

Why everyone I know thinks my former employer is a joke …

… Philadelphia Inquirer staff shredded for saying Fetterman won debate with Oz: ‘Clown world in action'. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.(j

The Inquirer ought to admit to its readers that it just shills for the Democratic Party. Yeah, Fetterman — who never encountered a homicide suspect he didn’t love — is mentally competent. Then again, they probably think Joe Biden is. They ought to start hiring reporters, not people who just have journalism degrees

California livin’ …

… CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ: A CALIFORNIA LIFE’ BY CYNTHIA L. HAVEN: THE WEST COAST’S MYTHIC ALLURE.

Much of the biography is thematically centered on four interconnected concepts: être, to be; devenir, to become; esse, being; and natura, nature. While the translations are simple, the concepts are nuanced and dense, grounded in Thomistic theology and serving as lenses through which to understand the world. Haven introduces these concepts in the opening chapter and returns to them throughout, linking the words and their attendant deeper meanings to key parts of Miłosz’s life and analyzing how his poems stem from and respond to each concept. The concepts become a guide for the biography, a heuristic through which the reader begins to gain some insight into Miłosz’s singular mind.

I Made it to the Gathering!!!

Although my 5 and 7 year old girls did implore me not to got to the "Scattering" as they called it, I explained it is but once a year that Mommy gets to do something for herself.

I begin to go into detail about the importance of nurturing my creative process, but they roll their eyes and ask what there is to eat. "It is OK", I say to myself, "they do not have to get it. And they will be just fine without me, just fine."

I throw my luggage in the car and drive off 10 minutes down the road. Hooray! Fending off the slings and arrows of guilt hurling children, I have arrived at the Gathering once again.

The theme this year- "There and Back Again -Time,Place and Story" already is resonating with me as I navigate the first 10 minutes of my arrival.

I think back to my uncertainty in the first minutes of the Gathering last year and how this year I am transformed - striding confidently to the correct building, having parked in the most convenient lot, free of trepidation about the unknown. I immediately see the two coolest Librarians I have ever met - my suite mates from last year. I feel welcome, I feel at home.

I am simply overjoyed to be here and grateful that I have the opportunity to be part of such a special convergence on this day... in this place... a new chapter of the Gathering begins.