Donna May

This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.

When a society has no mythological anchor, no soul-affirming rites-of-passage, a society doesn’t know which story it’s in. As for evil—surely we are too sophisticated for that? When you lose the metaphor, a hand moves briskly to a rusty blade. We are adrift in an epidemic of the literal.~Martin Shaw

Illustration of mouse in a cloak with a walking stick, walking through snow by wooded river. Caption: 'You cannot use someone else's map to find yourself.'

And that's also because finding ourselves is an amazing journey that lasts our whole lives.

Letter From Minnesota: “Mad Means Something” The greatest poem ever written about Minneapolis is a curse on the city. It‘s by James Wright, who wrote “The Minneapolis Poem” and published it in Shall We Gather at the River in 1968. He hated th…

"It seems weird to say so, but we need more poems now.... Start writing. Rise up, rise up, you poets, and tell us how it is." - Novelist and retired Prof Charles Baxter writing in @literaryhub.bsky.social Letters from Minneapolis series

It’s mad that there are people out there who refuse to understand that the good guys are not the ones putting children into CONCENTRATION CAMPS.

happy bday English writer/mathematician Lewis Carroll, b.1832.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there".

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”

Jen Malone

“Isn't that what the process of making the art is for, to reveal yourself who you truly are? Let the blank page whisper to you.”
― Jen Malone
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
#writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity

If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free.

consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov

Robert Reich What is Due Process?

Be warned: Trump is plotting to expand his cruel deportation machine even more this year.

Here's what you need to know about your right to due process. https://youtu.be/metN4EiDtmQ?si=AJsWWmKMHIKtPUqR

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected."
- John Steinbeck

As the new year approaches, my latest post on why I will be seeking to create rituals not resolutions. This post is free on Substack.
open.substack.com/pub/begininw...

For 50+ years, the NPR Network has offered America trusted information, free of charge. As public media faces a future without federal funding, we're relying on you to sustain this work in 2026 and beyond.

Donate now to power Tiny Desk concerts, local reporting and more: n.pr/4pCcFIx

Hands holding lettered tiles spelling 'thank you'

Big thank you to all the essential workers out there who are working tonight and over Christmas - nurses, doctors, hospital staff, paramedics, firefighters, police, prison staff. Care workers making home visits.
Bless you.

All about character: Jane Austen fans on their favorites As Jane Austen fans celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth, they also celebrate her characters.

As Jane Austen fans celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth, they also celebrate her characters. n.pr/3XS3t7h

I'm sitting here thinking about having a 15 daughter being chased down and abducted by masked men while the local police watch and let them carry her away to god-knows where w/zero accountability

we have to understand that girls are in severe danger of sexual violence from anonymous ICE goons

Rest in peace, Dr. Jane Goodall💚

Birthday of William Faulkner, BTD in 1897. Nobel Prize Winner; Banned Book Author (all the best creatives are, right?)

#WilliamFaulkner #Writers #BTD

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Well deserved. Bravo 🙌

Synchronicity is Jung’s coinage for what we can call ‘meaningful coincidence’, when the inner and outer worlds reflect each other with such accuracy and obvious meaning that to resort to mere coincidence as an explanation is useless.~Gary Lachman, 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

If you notice an unconscious fantasy coming up within you, you would be wise not to interpret it at once. Do not say that you know what it is and force it into consciousness. Just let it live with you, leaving it in the half-dark.~Marie-Louise von Franz

Mary Shelley and the Scottish Gothic Tradition | National Library of Scotland Explore the profound impact of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' on literature and culture.

“…my habitual residence was on the blank and dreary northern shores of the Tay, near Dundee…”

@profdanielcook.bsky.social examines why Scotland mattered so much to Mary Shelley, & considers Shelley’s position in the Scottish Gothic tradition
#FrankensteinDay #Frankenstein
www.nls.uk/papercut/mar...

According to Jung, metaphor affects the person on three levels: the mental level on which we interpret meaning, the imaginative level, where the actual transforming power resides, and the emotional level connected to the feelings embodied in the metaphor. ~Ralph Earle

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls.

If we have identified too closely with the light, have too idealized an image of ourselves, then our shadow will surely come up and hit us on the backside. The same is true if we have identified with our negative side. Either position is a denial of our wholeness.~Marion Woodman

We ❤️ Kate DiCamillo

Why do you love Little Free Libraries?

As English poet W.H. Auden put it in “𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴”: “We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.~Richard Rohr, 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳

I am indeed convinced that creative imagination is the only primordial phenomenon accessible to us, the real Ground of the psyche, the only immediate reality.~CG Jung, 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘎 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘨, 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘐

Image art from Pinterest

‘Take a daily walk with grace, comrades, out on the margins to the blessed misfit mystic untamed place.’

Why So Many MIT Students Are Writing Poetry A professor at the Institute discovered that his students were quietly meeting outside class to write verse. What might it mean for the future of AI?

An MIT literature professor discovered that his students were quietly meeting outside class to write verse. Joshua Bennett on what this means for the future of AI and why poetry matters in a world ruled by tech: