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Second Anniversary
Sometimes you meet a human so good, so wise, that the fact that he exists is enough of a miracle. But if you’re lucky enough to spend a couple years with that human? That’s going to make someone quote Carl Sagan at him:
“In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with you.”
Weekends Are The Best
Friday Links
1. Oh man. Compassion. “I’m the fat person sitting next to you on the plane.”
2. Inspirational Pinterest quotes, if Gertrude Stein or an AI chatbot got ahold of them.
3. I’m painting an accent wall in the bedroom (because it’s 1998 again) and Toby has never seen anything like it. His face last night pretty clearly said, “Mom, you are a wizard. How are you making that wall different?!”
Poems I Know From Ray Bradbury
Like the Yeats poem on St Patricks Day, I first encountered this one as the title of a Bradbury short story about the only house standing after an implied nuclear war. In the story, the smart house recites the poem and it’s all very creepy.
Turns out, Sarah Teasdale wrote it after WWI and stripped of the story, it’s much less creepy and more pretty and melancholy.
There Will Come Soft Rains
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools, singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
How To Greet Your Co-workers
While I usually do the “didn’t see ya” maybe I should start the “foot five”:
(Via Warby Parker the glasses company, which has been really impressive so far with their marketing emails, home try-on process, package design, and UI on the checkout process. The glasses I ordered should arrive this weekend, so I’ll give a final report on the actual product. Can’t beat the price, though.)
In Rooms
I know it’s still early, but I’ve felt a little like Colin in The Secret Garden lately and missing out on spring because I’ve been spending too much time “in rooms.” But at least I’m not ill. (Or, to use the language of early 1900s children’s lit, an “invalid.”)
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like? You don’t see it in rooms if you are ill.”
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth,” said Mary.
Sugar Coma
Friday Links
1. The Toast linked to a scientific study of monks and their circadian rhythms…and it’s actually really fascinating. The sleep research is very scientific but there’s info on the order of prayers that interrupt the monks’ night, the monastic life, medieval sleep habits, and generally delightful lines like this:
2. The title says it all:Peacocks in Mid-Flight Look Like Magical Creatures Out of a Fairytale.