Ocean Vuong | undertow & upheaval

Breathing easier in a more expansive and hopeful world is a real joy and delight. Especially after the past four years of waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. 

What we believe, how we show up - each moment defines who we are and how we live our lives. With the Trumpian error hopelessly dead and gone, we can now turn to better and brighter interactions. 

We need more sage!

At Biden's inauguration, youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman paved the way for many of us to learn and love the beauty and power of well constructed and definitive language. 

for the birds

In a recent post on Medium we wrote about the Sufi poem of Attar, "The Conference of the Birds." It has fascinated writers from Rumi to Borges and been translated throughout the ages by many expert authors.

There are many examples of such subtle symbols and allusions throughout the Mantiq Ut-Tair. Within the larger context of the story of the journey of the birds, Attar masterfully tells the reader many didactic short, sweet stories in captivating poetic style.

The latest translation in 2017 by Sholeh Wolpé strives to make Attar’s unorthodox and mystical vision accessible to contemporary Western readers.

America in siege

I don't believe in coincidences. Yesterday's breach of the Capitol is a day that will go down in infamy. That it happened on the Feast of the Epiphany is a true revelation. 

A victorious Trump in 2016 was terrible enough but this loser Trump is choosing to exit in as vile a way as he is capable of. Heaven forbid he be the sacrificial lamb to a slaughter of his own instigation. 

Our nation owes much to these courageous Senate aides who kept electoral votes safe.

"Whatever place we now live in is not the same place it was on Nov. 7. No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently. We are likely to be a pariah country." ~ Neal Gabler, 2016