Rajanaka Newsletter "Today is always gone tomorrow."
Dressing for the Weather
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Aho’Rajanaka,
I hope this finds you well. I usually start with the weather in Bristol in these weekly newsletters because ‘round here you never know what’s coming next. I mean, if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. But nowadays worse the weather gets, the more I like it. I’ve finally figured out why. It’s not just that Sadie Pup loves the worst weather though that itself is deeply inspiring.
I think it’s because I feel like there’s something I can do about that. Weather doing sideways? (Often literally.) Put on another layer and just go for it. Complain when you feel like it---no harm, no foul---but why bother when doing the next right thing isn’t so hard. Forge on. The rest of what’s going on in the world, I would say most of that, makes us feel pretty helpless, and as honest as those feelings are, it’s important to “stand in yoga.”
Yogastah. Stand in yoga. That has got to be my favorite teaching in the Gita, or maybe anywhere else. It means we must stay in engagement, abide in connection, and do what we can to be equitable in always storming world.
I need to quote a pal who wrote to me this morning, “I don’t know. My heart breaks. The world goes on. I keep showing up… We’ll see better days. I have to have a shred of optimism. Like my Polish Grandma said, “what you gonna do?”” Grandma laid it down: we’re not going to give up, we’re gonna keep trying because we need to create more that’s better.
Szymborska wrote:
Today is always gone tomorrow.
With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we're different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are.
Today we have Saturday Philosophers and there’s no better character for our times than the great Japanese writer Chomei. You may not know much about his work but let us say he too lived in “interesting” times and found refuge in artistry, in conversation, and occasional good company. He had a few good tricks up his sleeve too, so come on in, the weather will be fine. Last week’s Session in on the Archive, come tonight at 5pm Eastern. Here’s all the 411, again, ‘cause why not make it easy:
ALL Philosopher Saturdays, 5pm Eastern on Zoom. Sessions are $16 each or $75 for all in advance, use PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com). The usual Saturday link works:
https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268
October 28 Heraclitus, Greek
November 4 Kenko Chomei, Japanese
November 11 Meister Eckart, Christian
November 18 W.V.O. Quine, American
December 2 Ludwig Wittgenstein, somewhere at his desk
DROPBOX HERE:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/1nhcs4nji7yxfae35eyis/h?rlkey=7jiuzn3ec1ydhw5alajxi7m1s&dl=0
The recording for our Session on Nobel Laureate poet Wislawa Szymborska went swimmingly. Such amazing work. If you missed it, we have the recording. The poems we read are also on the Archive in PDF form. Look here:
Here’s the remaining schedule:
ALL Poetry Thursdays, 7pm Eastern on Zoom. Sessions are $16 each or $75 for all in advance, use PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com). The usual Thursday link works:
https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328
October 26 Czeslaw Milosz
November 2 Wislawa Szymborska
November 9 Samuel Coleridge
November 16 Louise Glück
November 30 Tu Fu & Li Po
DROPBOX HERE:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/he1kuvs22ior4n2k8ly5f/h?rlkey=r32skq8duqhe9auej0gwjdf4o&dl=0
Send me questions, queries, ideas: I will do a Substack Podcast (you can get them on Apple too) as a kind of Q&A. Anyone remember the Stump the Chump in the old flowy newsletters? I’m yer chump, ask away. I hope to have a pod this week, at least one. We’ll soon have more audio podcasts coming---some good folks have asked.
I hope to see you on Zoom this weekend. I’ll do my best to make this a good conversation.
Saprema, with affection, Douglas
&&&
ALL PAST NEWSLETTERS on the Kalliyam Blogspot here:
https://kalliyam.blogspot.com/2023/01/rajanaka-newsletter-january-10-2023.html
I’m hoping to put all future Newsletters also on Substack. Our mailing list server is fine but it’d be better to have things all in one place.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO SUBSTACK! More notes, chats, threads, podcasts are coming. Community is so difficult to sustain in this fragmented and shivering world that burns. Come find the fire within, as Heraclitus teaches. Renew and warm yourself in good company.