Luminous beings! I'm not the only one struggling with the day to day grind in the face of unrelenting worldwide insanity. Far from it. But it's good to get confirmation that we're not along in all of this. I was heartened in this when the latest of Mike Monteiro's emails popped up yesterday. Entitled "How to get out of bed", there were so many inspirational bits, triggered by the Knicks' come-from-behind win in Game 4. Even though I don't give a rip about sports, I'm the son of a basketball coach, so the metaphors will be with me forever. From the newsletter:
There is no 28 point shot in basketball. The only way to come back from a 27 point deficit is one shot at a time. Two points here. Two points there. A few three pointers sprinkled in. Some timely foul shots. And you have to do all of this while the other team is trying to do the same thing. Trying to grind you down. You just have to score a little bit more than they do over a set span of time. And if you score just one more point than they do at the end, you win.
This applies to the daily grind against fascism and the daily grind of art and the daily grind of being a parent, and so on, and so on. David put it succinctly:
This Week's Links
Anime Herald - Anyone can access manga now. Here’s why that’s good.
Kasurian - The Return of Oral Culture: Walter Ong, Neil Postman, and our new, high-tech oral culture.
The Unpopulist - The Historian Who Explained the True Meaning of the Revolution to Americans: Gordon Wood understood the genius of our founding better than the Founders themselves. Rest in Peace, sir.
Liberal Currents - Gender Graham Crackup: For the antifeminist leftist, the HR Lady symbolizes the empty triumph of managerial liberalism and girlboss feminism, to be vanquished by a pair of sapient Carhartts.
Liberal Currents - A City, Just Like a Country, Is Made by Those Who Live in It: Reject the petty politics of blood and soil.
Human Rights Research - Coding Caste: Tech Elites, Dalit Exclusion, and the Myth of Meritocracy in the Indian Diaspora
Truthout (2012) - “Sister Citizen”: Black Women in a Crooked Room
(BlueSky introduced me to the idea of "trying to stand up straight in a crooked room" and it really resonated for me, though its origin is in explaining the lived experiences of Black women. All of us live in crooked rooms, to a greater or lesser degree.
My Wikipedia Wabbitholes
Erika Mann | Thomas Mann House | ocarina | Shelby Foote | Michael Ansara | Our Man Flint | knickerbocker | Jesus in Islam
Cover Song of the Week
It's hard to beat the original Green Onions, but Mongo Santamaria holds its own.
Until next week, gassho.