Where do you find those who have traveled our roads before? I know they are there but you put them before us when desperately needed. No empty hope for me, but a peek at Joy remembered is a treasure….
Often I have things pop up during the week that I remember, but, full disclosure: I was unfamiliar with Wylie. Last night, I opened up one of my poetry anthologies, and it opened to the page with this poem on it. Did she come down and do that herself?
Not as wild as it sounds. She was at MacDowell Colony for a bit. This is from their website, talking about her:
"Though Wylie died of a stroke at 43 at the height of her career in 1928, her legacy at MacDowell continued. A room in the Eaves residence building is named for her, and during his acceptance speech of the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1991, composer and Fellow David Diamond told a story of a beautiful apparition who sat at his studio’s piano when he walked in shortly after dawn one day in 1935. He said she asked him if she could stay, and when he asked who she was, she turned to look at the music he was composing, then turned back to him and vanished. In describing her to Marian MacDowell and Thornton Wilder later that day, Diamond said Wilder identified the ghost as that of Elinor Wylie, who during her 1924 residency often wandered into other artists’ studios during the summer of 1924 with the same request."
I've been thinking a lot lately about a "sameness", I call it a "divine sameness" that is at the heart of everything. In some mysterious way, things will never really get any better than they are right now, but they will never really get any worse, and there is some profound sense of joy (and courage) in that. The last four lines of this poem are that.
I fear that AI will take sameness into the stratosphere. Human (or divine) sameness includes the creativity that even quantum mystery can’t impart to AI. We had better hope…. However, human sameness may mean that history just repeats ad nauseam. I’ll vote for divine.. thank you.
The "divine sameness" is there (here) prior to language. The most that AI can ever do is repeat language that is already out there. AI, good and bad, will run its course.
Thank you for that. A cut above our limited range. Mine to be sure, but comforting to consider the possibility of the improbable. I have had experience with such. Our senses can only confirm so much..
The beast even slouches incompetently. Our Democrats should endeavor and plan to help the Orange Menagerie (him and all his boobs) by accentuating their incompetence, amplify the trait. Even though we are not where we want to be, we can with greater than 90% (gut feeling) certainty, count on incompetence from the Orange Menagerie at every turn!
Our Democrats should make it their only job and create an opposition policy that amplifies their inherent incompetence and watch them eat their young!
I think the 2025 people might be stunned by the number of lawsuits they draw. That sector of the attack is ready for action; the courts are a sort of barricade and quite tedious to those who want to act so swiftly.
It happened in 1980, too. This is from the 'Onword!" section of the 2025 edition:
Thus, if conservatives finally gained control in Washington, they were prepared
to answer the question, “What is the conservative agenda?”
Candidate, then President-elect, then President Ronald Reagan’s “feisty new
kid on the conservative block—The Heritage Foundation”— had the answer, and
it was Mandate for Leadership.
First published in January 1981, the original Mandate served as a conservative
plan of action for the Reagan Administration, providing much of the blueprint for
the Reagan Revolution. It contained more than 2,000 detailed, actionable policy
recommendations to move the federal government in a conservative direction.
The recommendations ranged from internal bureaucratic reorganizations to
plans to implement specific, fundamental changes in every imaginable policy area—
from tax and regulatory reform to strengthening national defense to reforming
social programs. All were carefully crafted, vetted, and pieced together.
On January 21, 1981, at the first meeting of his Cabinet, President Reagan distributed copies of Mandate, and many of the study’s authors were recruited into
the Administration to implement its recommendations.
Wonder if Lewis Lehrman was mentioned back then. He was interviewed by the St Louis Post Dispatch Mar 17, 1985, in an article entitled “‘Conservative Revolution’ Will Alter All Policies, Spokesman Says.” I have it pinned to my @jdintx.bsky.social account. They told the world that they planned to dismantle our world. We yawned, likely because we had a cowboy hero who could play a president, especially with Peggy Noonan writing scripts, Michael Deaver doing PR, and money chomping at the bit to destroy FDR’s legacy. Most importantly, Reagan had Rupert Murdoch to replace Walter as the messager of entertaining prosperity instead of “that’s the way it is.” The fix was in on Fox.
I googled Lewis Lehrman a while back because I had never heard of him. He was still alive and likely basking in his success. Chump is his monster creation. But there is plenty of blame to go around. Thank you for the Mandate for Leadership, never knew about that. It was in January 1981, that Repubs had a dinner honoring Rupert for “using the editorial page, the front page and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan Reagan President” so said Jack Kemp…. We have been in a battle for America’s soul for a very long time.
I agree Richard. I am 99.9% sure that their incompetence and ensuing thirst for revenge will be their downfall. Of course, they and their spin-masters will never admit to what we will witness with our own eyes.
Agreed. Starting with: no one should come to his stupid inauguration. Let him be with the GOP lackeys and the MAGA idiots in the crowd. All the cool kids stay home.
Thank you, as always, Greg. Without fail I enjoy your thoughts and research, your insights. I wish you and family a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
Thanks again for a Sunday inspiration. Charles Dickens" "It was the best if times, it was the worst of times" is depressing as there is no middle ground, not that the in between is a highly desired state of being. Elinor Wylie finds a middle ground and expresses hope, not a promise that things will be fine, but remembrance that the bad was not as bad as feared at the time, itself something to celebrate.
The worst part of life today is uncertainty, knowing very bad is very possible. The mind is filled with "what ifs", sadly MSM pummels us daily, hourly with possible worst case scenarios. My answer, keep the faith, this aided by turning off notifications coming to the most evil of creations, the cell phone. This is not burying my head in the sand, rather selectively choosing a balance of the hopeful and hopelessness. Sunday Pages is a great contributor to that balance, thank you.
Thanks, Old Man. It's SO HARD to put the cell phone away, right? Speaking of Dickens, I am 900 pages into BLEAK HOUSE, which I will likely write about next week, and it was helpful, restorative even, for me to read a long novel, and force myself to focus on it. Do amphibians on the land too long long for more use of the gills?
So true, we must all do some thing (whatever that thing may be) to resist the dreadful powers that are coming our way, but we must never let them steal our joy. Never. Thank you for the reminder.
And they can't. They want our attention and, if possible, our admiration. They will get only the bare minimum of the first and never the second, never.
PERFECT! I got kicked out of Hopium right after the election for quoting my son, who had just returned from six solid weeks of knocking doors in Reno, and who I know has much more relevant info than fucking Joe Trippi. (my son said the hopium dispensers should “eat their keyboards”.) This poem is what I need to get my mojo back. We will go on, life and politics are always compromises, and that line about women squeezing nourishment from a stone is *chef’s kiss*.
Thanks, Abby. Oh, that nourishment line, what a wallop! There is always a balance between false hope and lost hope. One doesn't want to fall either way off the tightrope. The commentators now who are CERTAIN of outcomes are who I turn away from. We have no idea, really. We are just trying to prepare, both actually and spiritually, for what may come.
I loved this story. As always you offer new (to me) and illuminating people, times and places who offer helpful insights and perspectives.
These next few years offer me an opportunity to master focusing on the moment, being honest with myself about what's going on, and making choices of what I want to experience. In an environment where "the enemies" only survive because the have a steady diet of fear, terror and hatred to suck in hopefully my choice in the end will always be "Please don't feed the fascists." As I said, I am practicing.
Definitely shared with my much more accomplished cousin up in DC who has gotten to know you Greg because I figured she would enjoy what you write about as much as I do. This was another beauty so I thank you for introducing me to the poem and its author.
Hope you are having a good run up to the season. Merry Holidays and all that good stuff.
As per the usual, tears followed by a smile. Thank you 🙏🏼
Thanks, Kim!
WTF!
I subscribed because I loved the rough language you use to describe all things Trump.
I stay not only because of your position on things political but because you have great knowledge and love for poetry and literature.
You are a linchpin in my quest for continuing education .Thank you. Thank you. billserle.com
So true, from the sublime to the ridiculous. With a peak of sunshine in a dreary sky…
Sublime to ridiculous in the same tetrameter, sometimes...
Well stated, Bill serle. Same here. AND I tune into the 5-8 show for fun, giggles and great info!
Thanks, Dana! This week was a good one, I think. Alex talking about Georgia is what legacy media largely ignores, and it's so important...
Thanks, Bill, for saying so. I'm glad to hear that!
Same. What I love about Greg’s work is he inspires one’s own inner search while sharing his real inner stuff…. So generous.
Where do you find those who have traveled our roads before? I know they are there but you put them before us when desperately needed. No empty hope for me, but a peek at Joy remembered is a treasure….
Often I have things pop up during the week that I remember, but, full disclosure: I was unfamiliar with Wylie. Last night, I opened up one of my poetry anthologies, and it opened to the page with this poem on it. Did she come down and do that herself?
Not as wild as it sounds. She was at MacDowell Colony for a bit. This is from their website, talking about her:
"Though Wylie died of a stroke at 43 at the height of her career in 1928, her legacy at MacDowell continued. A room in the Eaves residence building is named for her, and during his acceptance speech of the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1991, composer and Fellow David Diamond told a story of a beautiful apparition who sat at his studio’s piano when he walked in shortly after dawn one day in 1935. He said she asked him if she could stay, and when he asked who she was, she turned to look at the music he was composing, then turned back to him and vanished. In describing her to Marian MacDowell and Thornton Wilder later that day, Diamond said Wilder identified the ghost as that of Elinor Wylie, who during her 1924 residency often wandered into other artists’ studios during the summer of 1924 with the same request."
There are more things in heaven and earth…
I so believe that we know such a small fraction and that we can’t even imagine what we don’t know. I say thank you Elinor, what an incredible story.
JD I agree. I know that is true.
Ooo, I forgot all about those White House ghosts until I read this. There must be some unhappy ones. Which makes me smile. And I bet they travel.
Thank you
Thanks for the poem that we needed right now.
I've been thinking a lot lately about a "sameness", I call it a "divine sameness" that is at the heart of everything. In some mysterious way, things will never really get any better than they are right now, but they will never really get any worse, and there is some profound sense of joy (and courage) in that. The last four lines of this poem are that.
Thanks, Rick. I like that, the divine sameness. A sort of spiritual equanimity. Zen-ness.
I fear that AI will take sameness into the stratosphere. Human (or divine) sameness includes the creativity that even quantum mystery can’t impart to AI. We had better hope…. However, human sameness may mean that history just repeats ad nauseam. I’ll vote for divine.. thank you.
The "divine sameness" is there (here) prior to language. The most that AI can ever do is repeat language that is already out there. AI, good and bad, will run its course.
Thank you for that. A cut above our limited range. Mine to be sure, but comforting to consider the possibility of the improbable. I have had experience with such. Our senses can only confirm so much..
Now truly takes talent
Yup
Thank you for all, Greg. You really do help us get through this .
Thanks, Silvia. I'm heartened to hear that.
The beast even slouches incompetently. Our Democrats should endeavor and plan to help the Orange Menagerie (him and all his boobs) by accentuating their incompetence, amplify the trait. Even though we are not where we want to be, we can with greater than 90% (gut feeling) certainty, count on incompetence from the Orange Menagerie at every turn!
Our Democrats should make it their only job and create an opposition policy that amplifies their inherent incompetence and watch them eat their young!
Doubt that the Project 2025 folks will allow that. They plan to hit the ground running, after the revenge parade
And they, the 2025, are professional gutters.
Worse than that, evil vipers, no hint of humanity
Both. They are both.
And we are at their mercy with no Ike in sight? I can use some divine sameness…
I think the 2025 people might be stunned by the number of lawsuits they draw. That sector of the attack is ready for action; the courts are a sort of barricade and quite tedious to those who want to act so swiftly.
Chump has certainly used lawsuits as a weapon, who has the money to do what he has done.
I hope so, Billy, but ABC settling is a grim omen.
It happened in 1980, too. This is from the 'Onword!" section of the 2025 edition:
Thus, if conservatives finally gained control in Washington, they were prepared
to answer the question, “What is the conservative agenda?”
Candidate, then President-elect, then President Ronald Reagan’s “feisty new
kid on the conservative block—The Heritage Foundation”— had the answer, and
it was Mandate for Leadership.
First published in January 1981, the original Mandate served as a conservative
plan of action for the Reagan Administration, providing much of the blueprint for
the Reagan Revolution. It contained more than 2,000 detailed, actionable policy
recommendations to move the federal government in a conservative direction.
The recommendations ranged from internal bureaucratic reorganizations to
plans to implement specific, fundamental changes in every imaginable policy area—
from tax and regulatory reform to strengthening national defense to reforming
social programs. All were carefully crafted, vetted, and pieced together.
On January 21, 1981, at the first meeting of his Cabinet, President Reagan distributed copies of Mandate, and many of the study’s authors were recruited into
the Administration to implement its recommendations.
Wonder if Lewis Lehrman was mentioned back then. He was interviewed by the St Louis Post Dispatch Mar 17, 1985, in an article entitled “‘Conservative Revolution’ Will Alter All Policies, Spokesman Says.” I have it pinned to my @jdintx.bsky.social account. They told the world that they planned to dismantle our world. We yawned, likely because we had a cowboy hero who could play a president, especially with Peggy Noonan writing scripts, Michael Deaver doing PR, and money chomping at the bit to destroy FDR’s legacy. Most importantly, Reagan had Rupert Murdoch to replace Walter as the messager of entertaining prosperity instead of “that’s the way it is.” The fix was in on Fox.
I googled Lewis Lehrman a while back because I had never heard of him. He was still alive and likely basking in his success. Chump is his monster creation. But there is plenty of blame to go around. Thank you for the Mandate for Leadership, never knew about that. It was in January 1981, that Repubs had a dinner honoring Rupert for “using the editorial page, the front page and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan Reagan President” so said Jack Kemp…. We have been in a battle for America’s soul for a very long time.
I agree Richard. I am 99.9% sure that their incompetence and ensuing thirst for revenge will be their downfall. Of course, they and their spin-masters will never admit to what we will witness with our own eyes.
It will all be Biden's fault. That's what they will say, over and over and over.
Agreed. Starting with: no one should come to his stupid inauguration. Let him be with the GOP lackeys and the MAGA idiots in the crowd. All the cool kids stay home.
Thank you, as always, Greg. Without fail I enjoy your thoughts and research, your insights. I wish you and family a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
Thanks so much, William. Same to you and yours!
Greg
Thanks again for a Sunday inspiration. Charles Dickens" "It was the best if times, it was the worst of times" is depressing as there is no middle ground, not that the in between is a highly desired state of being. Elinor Wylie finds a middle ground and expresses hope, not a promise that things will be fine, but remembrance that the bad was not as bad as feared at the time, itself something to celebrate.
The worst part of life today is uncertainty, knowing very bad is very possible. The mind is filled with "what ifs", sadly MSM pummels us daily, hourly with possible worst case scenarios. My answer, keep the faith, this aided by turning off notifications coming to the most evil of creations, the cell phone. This is not burying my head in the sand, rather selectively choosing a balance of the hopeful and hopelessness. Sunday Pages is a great contributor to that balance, thank you.
Thanks, Old Man. It's SO HARD to put the cell phone away, right? Speaking of Dickens, I am 900 pages into BLEAK HOUSE, which I will likely write about next week, and it was helpful, restorative even, for me to read a long novel, and force myself to focus on it. Do amphibians on the land too long long for more use of the gills?
So true, we must all do some thing (whatever that thing may be) to resist the dreadful powers that are coming our way, but we must never let them steal our joy. Never. Thank you for the reminder.
And they can't. They want our attention and, if possible, our admiration. They will get only the bare minimum of the first and never the second, never.
PERFECT! I got kicked out of Hopium right after the election for quoting my son, who had just returned from six solid weeks of knocking doors in Reno, and who I know has much more relevant info than fucking Joe Trippi. (my son said the hopium dispensers should “eat their keyboards”.) This poem is what I need to get my mojo back. We will go on, life and politics are always compromises, and that line about women squeezing nourishment from a stone is *chef’s kiss*.
Thanks, Abby. Oh, that nourishment line, what a wallop! There is always a balance between false hope and lost hope. One doesn't want to fall either way off the tightrope. The commentators now who are CERTAIN of outcomes are who I turn away from. We have no idea, really. We are just trying to prepare, both actually and spiritually, for what may come.
It is comical indeed.
Indeed.
Thank You, Greg! I didn't know I needed this.
Shared
Thank you!
I loved this story. As always you offer new (to me) and illuminating people, times and places who offer helpful insights and perspectives.
These next few years offer me an opportunity to master focusing on the moment, being honest with myself about what's going on, and making choices of what I want to experience. In an environment where "the enemies" only survive because the have a steady diet of fear, terror and hatred to suck in hopefully my choice in the end will always be "Please don't feed the fascists." As I said, I am practicing.
Thanks, Kathleen. Your approach is, I think, the right one. But the future will require improvisation, as it always does, but this time, more so...
Absolutely!
Definitely shared with my much more accomplished cousin up in DC who has gotten to know you Greg because I figured she would enjoy what you write about as much as I do. This was another beauty so I thank you for introducing me to the poem and its author.
Hope you are having a good run up to the season. Merry Holidays and all that good stuff.
Thanks so much! I'm glad she enjoys the pieces.
Merry holidays to you as well!