Over, Under, Sideways, Down

 That is how today feels - sort of a repeat of yesterday. No energy, even though we only worked 4 hours today. I spent almost half that time napping this afternoon.

I have not left the place since I came home and have no desire to do so. Just tired.

For all of noting things Rembrandt, literary and political, maybe this should be the theme for today's post:

I allowed my curiosity and sense of humor a little leeway with Shakespeare’s Lost Years (History Today); they are still lost.

For writers: The Amphibian: Now Seeking Submissions

Each issue of The Amphibian is themed, and past themes have included Metamorphosis, Folklore, and Healing. Right now they’re seeking submissions on the theme “Refuge”: “Where do you feel safe? What are you hoping for? … It is time to find a place of safety whether it is inside yourself or in your community.” “Refuge” will be their ninth edition, published in October.

Authors of fiction may submit stories up to 2,000 words. They also accept flash fiction. Poets may submit up to three poems of any length.

I have not had time - or energy - to peruse The Jewish Museum's Rembrandt exhibit, but it does look cool.

During lunch, I let YouTube entertain me with political stuff:

Which goes well with Why do MAGA faithful support Trump if his ‘big beautiful bill’ will likely hurt many of them? (The Convesation).

In the eyes of the MAGA faithful, Trump is no ordinary politician. To them, he is a savior who can help ward off the threat of radical left socialism. They believe Trump’s proclamation: “I alone can fix it.”

Some see Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024, as evidence he is divinely chosen to lead the country. Trump himself claimed during his second inaugural address, “I was saved by God to make America great again.”

As I have repeatedly observed firsthand at Trump rallies and MAGA gatherings and heard in my conversations with Trump supporters, many Trump supporters – even those whom Democrats contend will be hurt by the bill – see the bill as a key step to making America great again. Doing so will not be easy and may cause some pain.

Another for the writers: Hypergraphia: On Prolific Writers and the Persistent Need to Produce (Literary Hub).

Often, I’ve told people that what worked best was to become a recovering alcoholic with moderation issues whereby I may have traded one addiction for another, but at least after a marathon 5,000 word writing session, I rarely wake up in a pile of garbage covered in my own vomit. But more than anything, the answer is something else—it’s that I write because I absolutely have to write. Something in my constitution necessitates it, and while that doesn’t make me a better (or worse) writer in and of itself, it’s the essential element that has made me a prolific one.

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Similarly, when Oates was asked by Robert Phillips of The Paris Review if she was guilty of “producing too much,” and how her output could be squared with the sometimes-imperfect circumstances for writing itself, she answered that “One must be pitiless about this matter of ‘mood.’ In a sense, the writing will create the mood. If art is, as I believe it to be, a genuinely transcendental function—a means by which we rise out of the limited, parochial states of mind—then it should not matter very much what states of mind or emotion we are in.”

Think about that.

And that is all I can get done today, and it is back to Over, Under, Sideways, Down.

And a bonus: Psycho Daisies!

My brain is sooooo tired, this will be where I get off.

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