friction is not chaos, new order to my mornings, seeing and friendship, allyship, letter from minnesota, literary tv shows, storm of humanity
Friction is communication, not chaos.
yesterday i was grateful for an enormous amount of energy that enabled me to be a domestic god-dess...
today i am looking forward to a quiet day and yoga with anne...
hmm... well, i wrote some things in my journal about what i was thinking today and somehow managed to delete... oh well...
i had a day of great energy yesterday... got so much done... as noted in my gratitude statement for the day, i was a domestic goddess!... reading and writing... blog post... dog walking... breakfast making... house cleaning... errands running... dinner cooking... dishes washing...
and then a little tv with my wife before going to bed...
the goddess in me loves a day of tending to hearth and home...
i am changing up what i read in the morning... the order has been... gratitude statement... feminine mystique picture hunting... heather cox richardson...
i have decided that i want more that is a positive look at the world, even as the storm of humanity continues... it still read hcr, but i make it the last thing i read...
this quote from georgia o'keeffe about seeing and making friends struck me as important in a world dominated by the superficial relationships of social media...
Georgia O’Keeffe on the Art of Seeing – The Marginalian
A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower — the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower — lean forward to smell it — maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking — or give it to someone to please them. Still — in a way — nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.
i am planning to leave social media pretty much altogether... i have decided to spend my time seeing, doing things that bring me face to face with people in my community, making friendships instead...
and there was this reminder that to be a true ally, not a performative ally, we have to accept friction in our businesses, institutions, lives... we have to act so as to create it... "friction is not chaos"...
After the Strike, Will Art Galleries Be Allies?
Frictionless allyship is solidarity that requires no operational change. Real solidarity introduces drag. Something in the schedule, the budget, or the contract has to hesitate because the institution chose consequence over convenience.
from the same article aimed at art galleries but applicable to all businesses and institutions and lives...
Protest jams that quiet efficiency. Streets close. Traffic backs up. Daily routines detour around the fact that detention and deportation are not abstract policy, but lived rupture.
lithub has been publishing a series of letters from minnesotan writers... i found this one especially moving and poignant... it is polished writing... but it is first person witness which we need...
Literary Hub » Letter From Minnesota: “A Prayer Must Be More Than Asking”
For those hours in my car, or on foot, I’m in a world where unidentified and masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security swarm our Minneapolis in their tinted, caged vehicles, replete with tactical gear and assault weapons. They smash car windows and yank out drivers, they hustle solitary women from bus stops into cramped prison cells at midnight, they prowl around schools and daycare facilities and restaurants, hunting anyone with dark skin or a second language, or any other hint of what they’ve decided needs to be purged.
and...
In doing this work I spend so much time in the abyss, as the soldier did, alone with the difference between the world that exists if we are far away, only watching, and the world that exists if we come out into the streets. I pack boxes and join calls and walk streets and feel myself inside clouds of gas and chaos, wanting only to reach my hands out, palms up, to everyone in this beautiful, flawed city, us neighbors from all over the world, here for a better life that’s now under attack, I want to hold my palms up, as if in prayer: I’m so happy that you’re here.
Don’t ever go.
if you like your tv in the evening...
Literary Hub » The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in February
Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.
and finally, heather cox richardson, historian and chronicler of the current storm of humanity...
On February 1, 2026, as the fiftieth observance of Black History Month begins, government officials under the administration of Donald J. Trump have just removed an exhibit on enslavement from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The exhibit acknowledged nine people enslaved at the President’s House Site when President George Washington lived there. Curators intended the exhibit to examine “the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation,” but it conflicted with Trump’s March 2025 order that national historic sites should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.” In his order, Trump called out Independence National Historical Park for promoting “corrosive ideology,” teaching visitors that “America is purportedly racist.”
a few photos from this morning...
this one reminds me of a martian landscape...
haven't done one of these in awhile...
have a brave monday!...