2023 Quotes

Culture, more than rule books, determines how an organization behaves.

It must be most dangerous then to be a man. It is indeed, madame, and but few survive it. ― Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (Zinc Read, February 21, 2023) Originally publishedJanuary 1, 1932

The C part is in here and it wants to play. Do you want to see it? Or are you going to pussy out on me again?" This quote is taken from "As Easy As ABC", written in 2014, scheduled to be included in the as yet unpublished 3rd book of the Killing Time Legacy Series (expected c.2023).

The bird carried me inside his song. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and tried to embrace it, the bird, and when I did, I put my arms around you.

May 2023 be a year of new beginnings and not of recycled endings...a blessing tree of of new beginnings and unopened chapters waiting to be written.

Vampires are not real, even in 2023. So far, anyway. Though if you’d put it on my bingo card for 2020, I might have bought it.

What I’m praying is that you will choose those beautiful possibilities over any self-annihilating alternatives. My whole life on earth has been the weaving of a single powerful spell. The best part of all my magic was loving you.” (as spoken by the character Valerie Hyerman)

Talking to Time Magazine a few years back, Peter Drucker got to the heart of things: “I will tell you a secret: Dealmaking beats working. Dealmaking is exciting and fun, and working is grubby. Running anything is primarily an enormous amount of grubby detail work . . . dealmaking is romantic, sexy. That’s why you have deals that make no sense.

February Soup by Stewart Stafford The February fog, Turns all into blobs, Orange street lights, To Valentine's Night. When the wind strays, Fog's mantle is grey, Laying misty bouquets, On barren, muddied days. The daffodils of March, Can cheer up Plutarch, Adorned in Kelly green, No sign of foggy screens. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

Our role here on earth is not simply to maximize the advantage in our lives. It’s to maximize (protect, regenerate) all of life. We are here not just to make sure we as individuals survive, but to make sure that life survives; not to chase clout, but to chase life.” — Naomi Klein, Doppelgänger: a Trip into the Mirror World (2023)

It’s like, when you’re going out to dinner and you don’t really care where you go, but the other person really wants to go to the Chinese buffet. Maybe you don’t love the Chinese buffet, but it’s kind of rude to argue when you don’t even really care.

A new year is to hide the old scar by hoping to heal the new ones...

Live well and read correctly.

I want my authors to believe fully in the worlds they create, and I want their belief to generate my belief in turn.

Money and time, those were the two things that he always heard people complaining about, and he had plenty of both.

when something small happens, something almost imperceptible, and it changes everything.

You would think that a band called Sacajawea would be more supportive of free-thinking women.

What are we talking about in 2023? We are talking about our shared grief. We are talking about our collective gratitude.

Oggi, 31 dicembre 2023, ho scelto un buon proposito da realizzare nell'anno che verrà .... No, non si tratta di qualcosa di irrealizzabile come mettersi a dieta e andare in palestra

Five-Year,” a term given to cash minted before 2023. That was the last year cash was produced without embedded chips that could trace every use of the currency as if it was a debit or credit card.

A Cephalopod Wish by Stewart Stafford O, to be an Octopus, Sporting three hearts, Two that won't break, To go on and love more. O, to have its nine brains, To spread a migraine load, Fogless coordinates clear, A tower fire, now contained. O, to have a boneless form, A body fitted to life problems, Not ail from a tumour's grasp, Flee to safety in inky clouds. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved

There would be no 'quiet quitting' if people didn’t feel that they are being quietly marginalized and bullied in the first place. [From “On the Great Resignation” published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]

to Beth>> Your meet-cute would have gone like this, “Hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!” / “Sorry, I have a boyfriend.” Also, I feel like I should point out that it was freezing rain. Freezing rain isn’t cute.

What’s a meet-cute? <> It’s the moment in a movie when the romantic leads meet. They never just meet normally. It’s never like, “Harry, meet Sally. Sally, this is Harry.” They always meet in a cute way, like, “Hey, you just got chocolate in my peanut butter!” / “What are you talking about? You just got peanut butter in my chocolate!

We Close In Fifteen Minutes by Stewart Stafford Found myself the only taker, Of a minefield guided tour, Through no man's land life, Every exit is now invisible. Stardom magnified my flaws, A broken man lost in a maze, A deadly structure's hostage, A hermit in denial's labyrinth. Glimpse dwindling fragments, In the looking glass of hubris, Flounder in glossy quicksand, The solutions devoured whole. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze– and bid no one farewell not even to his flesh not even to himself– sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love If I must die let it bring hope let it be a tale

The emerging medical research into treating Long COVID in 2023 was matching my research into treating the long-term effects of altitude sickness that I published in my 2022 books. Amino acids appear to be key in treating both hypoxic conditions.

and most especially the opportunity to hug our loved ones wherever we want, whenever we want. We honor the ones we have lost. What are we talking about in 2023? We are talking about our shared grief. We are talking about our collective gratitude.

The Atlantean Road by Stewart Stafford A snake of stones beneath the waters Soldiers march past spectral daughters Phantom travellers To work or home Atlantean lives replay in foam The water drowned out extinct times Of joy and war Of love and crime The divers rapt by sound immemorial Echoes entombed Sweet voices choral The flame of Erasmus and barking sounds Of canine guards and strangers found The road roused from silent sleep To tell explorers how ancients weep © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

2023 August 14 Wellesley, Massachusetts Now I know how people can live without books, without college. When one is so tired at the end of a day one must sleep, and at the next dawn there are more strawberry runners to set, and so one goes on living, near the earth.

I’ve tried it a few times, when I’m alone in the car. But I never get past small talk. I feel sort of like I’m invading the baby’s space or like it’s going to wonder, after two months of respectful silence, why I’ve suddenly decided we need to get all personal with each other.

Straw" I still keep the last straw I picked from the harvested wheat field near my home before the war forced me out… I have the straw framed and take it with me everywhere I go… And when asked about it, I tell people: It is the straw that broke my back… [Published on April 7, 2023 on CounterPunch.org]

AT THE NEXT weekend’s D&D game, Christine pulled Lincoln aside to ask about his situation at work. “Did you stop reading that woman’s e-mail?” Christine asked. “No,” Lincoln said, “but I didn’t walk by her desk this week.” Christine bit her lip and rocked the baby nervously. “I’m not sure that counts as progress.

This is a book about the dead, and the people who are left behind. It is also a personal story, written in my own voice, as a citizen of a nation I cannot recognize as my own. The thousands who died were killed with the permission of my people. I am writing this book because I refuse to offer mine. —Manila, June 2023

the Deep Space Gateway, which will act as a refueling and resupply station for missions to Mars and the asteroids. It will be the basis for a permanent human presence in space. Construction of this lunar space station will begin in 2023 and it will be operational by 2026. Four SLS missions will be required to build it.

When Mercury is retrograde, stay flexible, allow more time for travel, and don’t sign contracts. Review projects and plans but wait until Mercury is direct again to make final decisions. In 2022, Mercury will be retrograde during January 13–February 3, May 10–June 2, September 9–October 1, and December 28–(January 18, 2023).

For white Americans (whiteness itself a societal construct that has changed in it definition over time), this new national holiday of Juneteenth, this day off from work, should be like an American Yom Kippur, a Day of Atonement, a day of reflection, a day to keep learning more about how we have failed as a society to live up to our ideals, and what we as individuals can do to make it better, more real, closer to our vision of justice and liberty, a vision that our founding forefathers could not even imagine. 'Do better' should be what all who carry any kind of privilege in this society should say to ourselves and to each other - what can we do, what can you do, to 'do better'?

being an asshole doesn't make you seem like a rock star--it just makes you seem like an asshole.

Etihad is the current sponsor of Manchester City.

Travelling broadens the mind

don't regard anything else in the world as important except this: to do only what your own nature requires and to conform to what common nature provides.

The goal of a rational constitution is to act thoughtfully, be kind to others, and willingly submit to the gods.

Remember, everything comes either directly from God, from a chain of events, or from coincidence.

Without a connection to God, you will never succeed in any worldly actions; nor will you succeed in any divine actions without some consideration of human affairs.

Remember, a person can only truly live in the present moment.

Etes-vous là ou n'y êtes-vous pas ? Si vous y êtes, n'y soyez plus ; si vous n'y êtes, je n'ai que dire.

The world is in constant flux, and life is a matter of perception.

Train yourself to only think about things that you wouldn't mind sharing if someone were to suddenly ask you what you're thinking.

Consider how small a portion of vast and infinite eternity is allotted to each of us, and how quickly it disappears into the general age of the world.

Long story short, it was a bad time. Long story short, i survived.

The happiness of life lies in thoroughly understanding the true nature of everything: what it's made of, and what its form is.

carefully examine your motives in everything you do.

The great blot on his name, and one hard indeed to explain, is his treatment of the Christians.

The Lord wants you to look at yourself from His perspective. He sees so much beauty in you, more than you can see when you look at yourself.

(A name, at last. “Say it loud and there’s music playing. Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.”)

She liked to talk about things that mattered. She was wholehearted, and fierce.

sort of person who would set something on fire just to get attention.

Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t think it matters what I think or what I did or didn’t see coming. You had to see it for yourself. You had to see it through.

Am I going to die?” he asked. “I hope so,” Justin said.

It’s not just about religion,” Nadia said, her lips curled in disapproval. “You wear it out of modesty, to prevent hakyelnas. We don’t want people to start talking.

As usual, only a few minutes in her mother-in-law’s presence and she was reminded of all the ways she was failing.

wish I could, Yumma,” you told her. “But Palestine is no longer ours, and there’s nothing left for me here.

He cared about her. Someone cared about her, someone who didn’t have any obligation to do so. Hadn’t she wanted to hear those words her entire life? To love and be loved in return?

I don’t understand,” she said, staring at him. “You’ve been building your business for years. Why would you just give it all up?

don’t understand why kids are automatically considered a woman’s responsibility,” Amanda said, trying to meet Yara’s eyes. “Is that how it is for you?

Why then should it be painful to you if nature, which brought you into the world, now sends you out of it? It's like a director kindly dismissing an actor from the stage after a while.

She couldn’t help but wonder what stereotypes might be going through Amanda’s mind: how weak and domesticated Yara was, a good little housewife. Oppressed by marriage and motherhood. How very Arab.

... Just because someone doesn't ask for help doesn't mean they don't want it or need it. Particularly women. Women are so used to coping that sometimes they don't even realize there's another way...

Nothing like coming home to a clean house, a warm meal, and my three beautiful girls.” He turned to look at her, his dark eyes shining under the lights. Yara laughed and looked at the floor. “Thanks.

Fadi has been slacking off at work and jeopardizing our business, staying late to hang out, charging the business card for personal trips, even claiming reimbursement for a storage room that doesn’t exist.

You think I don’t feel overwhelmed? I’m the one who gets the bills every month! I’m the one who pays for everything! Tell me, who’s going to do that if I stay home with you and clean up the kitchen all day?

Black Widow by Stewart Stafford She blinds me with her caress. Hand upon my chest, Venom kisses like snake bites ecstatic and unbecoming night. She drags me to her tomb, graveyard of many a groom, Lovers wrapped in silken lace, In webs of death, find their place. Creeping dawn on morn, Frostbitten and reborn, Clinging on so tight, Her kiss, the shroud of night. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

Would this be the rest of her life, too? Confined to the four walls of this house, to the whispers of other people’s fears, scrubbing away, while another world was happening out there, happening without her?

How? Try to travel into the future and look back. In 2023, do you think you’re more likely to say, “Back in 2018, I wish I’d been more aggressive” or “Back in 2018, I wish I’d been more defensive”? And is there anything today about which you’d be likely to say, “In 2018, I missed the chance of a lifetime to buy xyz”? What you think you might say a few years down the road can help you figure out what you should do today.

It is more important to look holistically at the root of why anyone would want to avoid work so badly that they’d game the system and leave the workforce altogether. When work is fulfilling, dignifying, respects our skills and nourishes our talents and souls, it becomes a pleasure not a burden; something we would look for not run away from. [From “On the Great Resignation” published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]

It wasn’t like mainstream, white-centering American culture was any better. It seemed to her that women were endlessly objectified, consumerism ruled their desires, and addictions were encouraged then stigmatized.

She told Esther how Baba had called her one day with news of Mama’s sudden death, and how he’d continued on with his life as if nothing had happened, as if Mama had been little more than an appliance that had stopped running on him.

The Lucky Looking Glass by Stewart Stafford Woken from a nightmare, He walked to his bathroom, Treading on a hand mirror, Breaking it, to his horror. Payback of a reflection dodged, With a lifespan of scars healed, Dark energies bilaterally wiped, A poisonous duo counterbalanced. From then on, Plutus's grin shone, A Midas touch with an off switch, Winning streaks of a Texan width, Cracked mirror coffin for the next life. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

The Daily Grind by Stewart Stafford Crooked broker flashes teeth, Cannibal flesh on their napkin, The traffic jam zombie shuffle, Stars, take me home quickly. Follow the screaming off a cliff, Panic echoes as the land recoils, Sea spray whipping up at you fast, Splash down into drowning lessons. See a shark fin’s scything slash, Fangs picked clean with a toothpick, Dark eyes wander to exposed midriff, Chomp, and all the problems cease. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s no secret that women from your country experience severe sexism and misogyny.” Yara’s back stiffened. “My country?” “Well, yeah. I mean, aren’t most Arab women expected to stay at home and look after their children?

Cowards want to cancel, change and delete history because It offends them. Heroes want to learn from history so that we never let it happen again. Be a hero. Stop bending to the will of the cowards. History is what it is, accept. It and use it to make the future better.

The Cliffs Of Consolation by Stewart Stafford Don't fall meekly off Life's precipice, With Death stamping on weak fingers, Cling on, scream, fight the inevitable, For gravity’s jury's karmic reprieve. Souls crash in the surf beneath, The perennial tide of plankton orbs, In effervescent flows above the bluff, Doves flying back when the flood's over. If beyond salvation, down you plunge, Assuage yourself with lifetime efforts, All is pardoned, wiped clean in death, A phoenix risen from bodily constraints. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

The ideal set before each was nominally much the same. The Stoics aspired to ἁπάθεια, the repression of all emotion, and the Epicureans to ἀταραξία, freedom from all disturbance; yet in the upshot the one has become a synonym of stubborn endurance, the other for unbridled licence.

Jedha. The Holy City was a sight to behold, a beacon of faith for the entire galaxy, sacred to… well, sacred to just about everyone. Above all, Jedha was a haven. A sanctuary. It was a place to retreat, to reflect and renew. A place where you could discover who you truly were… and who you could become.

With everything in place, engineers have begun working towards dismantling the Sarcophagus - estimated to take five years. Assuming that’s completed before 2023, when the Designed Steel Stabilisation Structure holding up the western wall is no longer guaranteed to take the weight, work can begin on removing fuel-containing material from within Unit 4. They’ll have 100 years, which sounds like a lot, but nuclear decommissioning is a notoriously laborious process. Despite the fire at England’s Windscale nuclear plant happening all the way back in 1957, clean-up work isn’t expected to finish until 2041.

He raised her, and smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I have never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions.

أتأمّل كافّة العلاقات الإنسانية التي مررتُ بها، بكافة أشكالها وطبيعتها لأجدَهَا أنّها بشكلٍ أو بآخر أتتت لتعلّمنِي معنى التوازن وتوصلنِي إليه داخليًا .. جميع التفاعلات الإنسانية بيننا وبين الآخرين لو ننتبع مسارهَا في الأخير سنجدهَا تأتِي لتسير في هذا المسار لو تعلّم الإنسان الإستفادة من الناس في حياته ومراقبة ذاته، مراقبة متفحصة للمشاعر والأفكار والسلوك .. سنجدُ أنها تأتِي لتعزّز صفة حسنة فينا، أو تُظهر عيبًا خفى عنّا، أو تُصلحَ شعورًا فينا، أو تجعلنا نُبصر ذواتنا بالصورة الصحيحة .. إن الأشخاص المتطرفون، الذين يبالغون في مدحنا أو ذمّنا وإظهار عيوبنا هُم في الحقيقة يدفعوننا للتساؤل بصدق إن كنّا كذلك أم لا، وبعد تلك الرحلة من التساؤل نجدُ أننا شكلنا صورة صحيحة عن أنفسنا .. إن الذينَ يُثيرونَ في صدورنَا مشاعر الغضب، والقلق، والشك والريبة يجعلوننا أمام رحلة البحث عن أسباب هذه المشاعر والبحث عن جذورها، فنتعلّم بذلك ضبط انفعالاتنا، فتخفّ فينَا الانفعالات غير الطبيعية .. إنّ الذين يستغلّوننا بشكل أو بآخر، يعلّموننا كيف نرسمُ حدودنَا فلا يتخطّاها أحد إلا بإرادتنا .. لو نجلسْ ونتأمل عن قرب أثر العلاقات التي مرّت بنا، إمّا كانت سعيدة أو مؤلمة، مثمرة، أو أدت بنا إلى الخسائر، هِي كلّها أتتْ لتسير بنا نحو عمق آخر من معرفة الذات، وكشفت لنا عن سبيل آخر للإصلاح .. ولكنْ ذلك لا يحدث إلا عندَما تُفتح عين البصيرة ويبدأ الإنسان بالتساؤل : كيف ولم وماذا لو .. ؟ وكيف يمكنني أن أستفيد من الذين مرّوا بي ومررتُ بهم. 7.10.2023

Ha!” Baba said. “You think you’re going to feel better if you leave? You think you’re going to live happily ever after? That’s the bullshit this country tries to feed you. Why do you think half of them are divorced?” She opened her mouth to respond, but Baba cut her off. “You’re a mother. Your children come first. What about your daughters?

You can have it if you want it, if you’re willing to pay for it. Save your money.” “I don’t have any money,” he’d said in the ninth grade. “Be thankful, Lincoln. Money is a cruel thing. It’s the thing that stands between you and the things you want and the people you love.” “How does money come between you and the people you love?” “It’s coming between us right now.

See, that’s my point,” she said. “Why do I always have to watch the kids? You travel all the time and you don’t ask for permission. But the moment I want to go somewhere, not only do I have to ask you, but you can say no. It’s a total double standard.” Fadi sighed. “It’s not my fault we live in a world of double standards. It’s not just an Arab thing, it’s everywhere.

The House of the Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne) - La tua evidenziazione a pagina 37 | posizione 567-571 | Aggiunto in data venerdì 17 marzo 2023 11:52:39 Nevertheless, if we look through all the heroic fortunes of mankind, we shall find this same entanglement of something mean and trivial with whatever is noblest in joy or sorrow. Life is made up of marble and mud. And, without all the deeper trust in a comprehensive sympathy above us, we might hence be led to suspect the insult of a sneer, as well as an immitigable frown, on the iron countenance of fate. What is called poetic insight is the gift of discerning, in this sphere of strangely mingled elements, the beauty and the majesty which are compelled to assume a garb so sordid.

Cuando están hablando Irina y Daniel en la reunión de Mensa en la que se conocen, Daniel habla del proyecto Human Brain Project. Todo lo que menciona al respecto son datos reales: es un proyecto internacional que se extiende hasta 2023, con un presupuesto de mil doscientos millones de euros, que pretende lograr la simulación detallada de un cerebro humano en un conjunto de supercomputadoras. El proyecto busca, entre otras cosas, integrar los conocimientos desarrollados por la neurociencia en las últimas décadas y aunar esfuerzos en la investigación sobre el cerebro de cara al futuro, de modo que se acelere el avance de la neurociencia. Si se consigue, el diagnóstico precoz y un mejor tratamiento de enfermedades como el Parkinson y el Alzheimer estarán al alcance de nuestra mano.

I’m a good husband and I’ve done my best to support you, Yara, but you know I have to work. I have bills to pay, this entire family to worry about. Between the mortgage, our cars, and providing for the girls, it’s too much. And it’s not like your job pays anything significant.” He wiped his fingers with a napkin and looked at her. “What do you want me to do, quit my job so you can travel the world and take pretty pictures?

Redrum by Stewart Stafford A Winter's tale of horrors profound, The haunted hotel's dark tapestry, Supreme isolation's moonscape snowbound, A father gripped by homicidal history. He sought to write, heal, absolve sins, Overlooked the hotel’s Redrum plans, Vomiting up daymares of phantom twins, His mind possessed by unseen hands. Room Two Three Seven, malevolent, Forbidden to enter its dark hole, Where ageless ladies bathed decadent, Luring caretakers to an adulterer's role. His wife and son sensed the danger, A bloody elevator with nowhere to run, A father's warpath with axe and anger, He became the monster, the devil's son. It might horrify 42 ways from Sunday, Only his shining son grasped the fact, May as well be across the galaxy, As in a labyrinth with that maniac. He failed to kill, he froze, met his fate, The hotel consumed his spirit as its own, Purgatorial torture in damnation's bait, He smiled in the photo, eternally alone. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

C’era un tempo in cui ci potevamo toccare, anche solo sfiorare. In quel tempo potevamo sorriderci, potevamo guardarci. Adesso il tempo ci insegue, sembra il nostro peggior nemico, ci inganna e ci rifiuta, ci tiene lontani più di quanto lo fossimo allora. Il tempo crede di poterci aiutare riportandoci “indietro in questo futuro”, non ci lascia però respiro, non ci lascia scampo, non ci lascia scelta. Siamo delle pedine, gli apparteniamo. Le nostre anime appartengono a lui e lo faranno finquando ci ritroveremo, e ancora… potremo appartenerci… solo l’un l’altro. - Anime del Tempo

The Seer's Map by Stewart Stafford Howling dog, thou cursèd hound, Plaguest thy master with baleful sound, The cur's yelps taint the air around; A dirge for all that hear thy wound. The rooftop magpie foretells: Herald of guests to visit soon, A noisy speech announceth, Companions of the afternoon. Lucky horseshoe and iron key, Bringeth good fortune to the finder, But spilling salt provokes fate, And draws the evil eye's reminder. A shoe upon the table laid, Tempts the dead to live anon, For this ungracious gesture waketh, Flesh and blood from skeleton. Who crosses the path of hare or priest, A perilous milestone on thy road, Their very presence signifies That gathering trouble doth forebode. A toad on thy merry travels, Brings sweet smiles and kindest charms, Keep one about thy person warm, To shelter safe from danger's harms. Red sky at night delights the eye, Of shepherd that beholds thy light, Thy colour doth betoken dawn Of weather fair and clear and bright. Red sky at morn troubles the heart, Of shepherd that surveys thy shade, Thy hue doth presage day Of stormy blast and tempest made. December's thunder balm, Speaks of harvest's tranquil mind, January's thunder, fierce! Warns of war and gales unkind. An itchy palm hints at gold To come into thy hand ere long, But if thou scratch it, thou dost lose The fair wind that blows so strong. A Sunday Christmas forewarns: Three signs of what the year shall hold; A winter mild, a Lenten wind, And summer dry, to then unfold. Good luck charm on New Year's Day Maketh fortune bloom all year, But to lose it or give it away, Thou dost invite ill-omened fear. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Trama Luci flebili di candele, obnubilamento. Un castello. Un volto noto al cuore e dimenticato dalla mente, o quasi. Nei sogni di Selene fin da piccola, frammenti non di questa vita. Due anime antiche smarrite in un continuo tornare, vivere e morire e non trovarsi mai, fino a quando vivranno di nuovo nello stesso tempo sulla terra. Mai conosciuti, ma con gli stessi ricordi, lo stesso amore e lo stesso dolore. La stessa spada, quella notte... Gradara, secolo XIII. Così nell'ultimo respiro Francesca fu di Paolo per sempre... e Paolo divenne anima della sua anima... cercandosi disperatamente fin oltre l'oblio della vita che si spende e fino a ritrovare la luce negli occhi di Selene e di Mirko, dove le loro anime riebbero il respiro. Essersi amati tanto, essere traditi da tutti, traditi dalla vita stessa e perduti… si erano solo sfiorati nel tempo e nello spazio. E se il tempo non finisse con la vita? Se quando il tempo finisce non fosse per sempre? E se non andasse tutto perduto? Se si potesse andare oltre l'insperato e oltre la vita... se l'amore fosse tanto forte da tornare e con esso dare luce a un altro tempo? E se quel tempo fosse qui, adesso, nel nostro secolo…?

Statement on Hamas (October 10th, 2023) When Israel strikes, it's "national security" - when Palestine strikes back, it's "terrorism". Just like over two hundred years ago when native americans resisted their homeland being stolen, it was called "Indian Attack". Or like over a hundred years ago when Indian soldiers in the British Army revolted against the empire, in defense of their homeland, it was called "Sepoy Mutiny". The narrative never changes - when the colonizer terrorizes the world, it's given glorious sounding names like "exploration" and "conquest", but if the oppressed so much as utters a word in resistance, it is branded as attack, mutiny and terrorism - so that, the real terrorists can keep on colonizing as the self-appointed ruler of land, life and morality, without ever being held accountable for violating the rights of what they deem second rate lifeforms, such as the arabs, indians, latinos and so on. After all this, some apes will still only be interested in one stupid question. Do I support Hamas? To which I say this. Until you've spent a lifetime under an oppressive regime, you are not qualified to ask that question. An ape can ask anything its puny brain fancies, but it's up to the human to decide whether the ape is worthy of a response. What do you think, by the way - colonizers can just keep coming as they please, to wipe their filthy feet on us like doormat, and we should do nothing - just stay quiet! For creatures who call themselves civilized, you guys have a weird sense of morality. Yet all these might not get through your thick binary skull, so let me put it to you bluntly. I don't stand with Hamas, I am Hamas, just like, I don't stand with Ukraine, I am Ukraine. Russia stops fighting, war ends - Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends. However, I do have one problem here. Why do civilians have to die, if that is indeed the case - which I have no way of confirming, because news reports are not like reputed scientific data, that a scientist can naively trust. During humankind's gravest conflicts news outlets have always peddled a narrative benefiting the occupier and demonizing the resistance, either consciously or subconsciously. So never go by news reports, particularly on exception circumstances like this. No matter the cause, no civilian must die, that is my one unimpeachable law. But the hard and horrific fact of the matter is, only the occupier can put an end to the death and destruction peacefully - the resistance does not have that luxury.

Another dangerous neoliberal word circulating everywhere that is worth zooming in on is the word ‘resilience’. On the surface, I think many people won’t object to the idea that it is good and beneficial for us to be resilient to withstand the difficulties and challenges of life. As a person who lived through the atrocities of wars and sanctions in Iraq, I’ve learnt that life is not about being happy or sad, not about laughing or crying, leaving or staying. Life is about endurance. Since most feelings, moods, and states of being are fleeting, endurance, for me, is the common denominator that helps me go through the darkest and most beautiful moments of life knowing that they are fleeing. In that sense, I believe it is good for us to master the art of resilience and endurance. Yet, how should we think about the meaning of ‘resilience’ when used by ruling classes that push for wars and occupations, and that contribute to producing millions of deaths and refugees to profit from plundering the planet? What does it mean when these same warmongers fund humanitarian organizations asking them to go to war-torn countries to teach people the value of ‘resilience’? What happens to the meaning of ‘resilience’ when they create frighteningly precarious economic structures, uncertain employment, and lay off people without accountability? All this while also asking us to be ‘resilient’… As such, we must not let the word ‘resilience’ circulate or get planted in the heads of our youth uncritically. Instead, we should raise questions about what it really means. Does it mean the same thing for a poor young man or woman from Ghana, Ecuador, Afghanistan vs a privileged member from the upper management of a U.S. corporation? Resilience towards what? What is the root of the challenges for which we are expected to be resilient? Does our resilience solve the cause or the root of the problem or does it maintain the status quo while we wait for the next disaster? Are individuals always to blame if their resilience doesn’t yield any results, or should we equally examine the social contract and the entire structure in which individuals live that might be designed in such a way that one’s resilience may not prevail no matter how much perseverance and sacrifice one demonstrates? There is no doubt that resilience, according to its neoliberal corporate meaning, is used in a way that places the sole responsibility of failure on the shoulders of individuals rather than equally holding accountable the structure in which these individuals exist, and the precarious circumstances that require work and commitment way beyond individual capabilities and resources. I find it more effective not to simply aspire to be resilient, but to distinguish between situations in which individual resilience can do, and those for which the depth, awareness, and work of an entire community or society is needed for any real and sustainable change to occur. But none of this can happen if we don’t first agree upon what each of us mean when we say ‘resilience,’ and if we have different definitions of what it means, then we should ask: how shall we merge and reconcile our definitions of the word so that we complement not undermine what we do individually and collectively as people. Resilience should not become a synonym for surrender. It is great to be resilient when facing a flood or an earthquake, but that is not the same when having to endure wars and economic crises caused by the ruling class and warmongers. [From “On the Great Resignation” published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]