Randall's Seeing Neon

The Mess Why leaving that scratched-out, torn-up, mistake-filled page in your journal is actually a good thing.

The messiness of my creative process is what allows emergence to take place. I'm coming to terms with that being a good thing, not a problem.

New words at Writing Under Rainbows!

On Tenderness My favorite feeling!

Trying some shorter form writing on my blog to encourage myself to learn in public and not overthink it! Here's a few on tenderness, which is one of my favorite human experiences:

writingunderrainbows.substack.com/p/on-tendern...

The Cardinal's Invitation To practice hospitality, we must pay attention.

New post on my blog!

"This charge, to welcome the stranger and open my table to the one who needs a meal, is my inheritance. I also believe that for each of us, in one way or another, this moment in time calls us to communities of hospitality."

open.substack.com/pub/writingu...

Kindness is an act of resistance.

And that's kinda sad to me. It didn't have to be this way.

But nothing is inevitable, including "the bad" stuff.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" IF people show up and fight for it.

An Ode to My Favorite Place Saying goodbye to a hospitable community. Taking its spirit into the next unknown.

My grief is weighty as I say goodbye to this beautiful place. Yet I’m also filled with gratitude for my time with GraceFull and determination to carry on the spirit of deep hospitality that made it so remarkable.

writingunderrainbows.substack.com/p/an-ode-to-...

This is a message for members of the United States Senate. @schiff.senate.gov @kaine.senate.gov @wyden.senate.gov @sanders.senate.gov @smith.senate.gov

The last words heard from an ordinary American, Todd Beamer, are my message to you. "Let's roll."

Generations of ordinary Americans have...

People are like "Jesus just taught common-sense natural-law truth, like loving your kin before strangers, or loving your countrymen before foreigners!"

...Then why did he have to teach it?

If Jesus's teaching is just "do what we naturally want to do anyway," how does it change us?

Normalizing spelling out what people actually mean when they cite DEI rather than letting them hide behind the safe cover of a euphemism that's been sapped of meaning

Let's Get Started Finding sustainable creative practices for the long run

I'm searching for sustainable habits of creativity and learning. It keeps me connected, keeps me integrated. And I think the current regime wants us to feel disconnected, disintegrated, and desperate.

Art is resistance. Creating is resistance. Community is resistance.

This is exactly right. We need an affirmative vision of egalitarian pluralism - of a society in which the individual’s status would no longer be determined by race, gender, religion, or wealth.

And we need political leaders able to make the case for it, defend it, fight for it.

We need better.

Yes! The anti-DEI crusade is a comprehensive project of re-segregating all elite spaces, restoring white male dominance in all spheres of life, and mandating a white nationalist story about America’s past and present.

And these Trumpist cranks couldn’t possibly be more explicit about any of this.

Gabor Maté says that trauma isn’t what happened to you, it’s what you hold onto in the absence of an empathetic witness. We need all the tools and meds and support, but we need each other most of all. #medsky #spiritualcare #chaplains #healthcare #mentalhealth 3/x

Y’all. My facility has seen an uptick in pediatric suicidal ideation cases. Many under the age of 13. All with complicated family dynamics. We all know there’s an ongoing mental health crisis, but these kids need us. #medsky #spiritualcare #mentalhealth 1/x

Hey, Democratic Reps and Senators, this is the messaging. This is the attitude. This is the playbook. Y'all paying attention?

Yes, this administration is dangerous and cruel, but they are also shockingly dim and incompetent.

Opportunities are everywhere.

Make everything as hard as possible. Resist every demand. Refuse entry without a warrant. Don’t take the buyout. Their problem solving skills are 📉

Just got this tip from an airline pilot

I don't blame reporters or headline writers for misframing this when the news is breaking.

But now that people have seen the details, please stop calling it a buyout. It is not. At best, it is a compelled resignation.

If you're with ICE or any other authority targeting innocent migrants, don't expect cooperation from me. Your failure is a blessing for humanity. I hope your job is soul-draining. I am actively rooting for your anxiety and frustration. I would rather gargle broken glass than make your life easier.

"Orpheus was a poor boy. But he had a gift to give. He could make you see how the world could be in spite of the way that it is."

Artists, help me out here: a t-shirt with a frowning Cap'n Crunch that says "Oops, All Project 2025!"

"weaponizing incuriosity" is brilliant.

It's striking how often these pronouncements are made about what is going to happen, as though the speakers have been blessed with the gift of prophecy. An attempt to act like they're in control rather than to do the things that would actually give us some control.

Right now naive cynicism consists of "no one is doing anything/it will never work" pronouncements rather than actually seeing what people are doing, and there are things that will work if they get support, which these postures attempt to undermine. It's weaponized incuriosity.

The lesson we should take here is that any ambiguity in their language is intentional and the harshest meaning is likely to be the one they run with

First WH press conference: only exemptions from OPM freeze are *direct payments* to individuals. Money going to orgs, then to individuals not exempt. For deportation targeting "criminal migrants" includes assumption anyone here illegally is a criminal

The man in the CNN screenshot below is the same man pictured praying with a group in this photo.

The public belittling and cruelty of starving children is entirely divorced from the way of Jesus of Nazareth who fed the masses, who said "let the little children come to me."

check out that chyron. this is where we're at.