Dear Lovely Peeps,

I try to avoid Substack, but sometimes I get sucked in by what appears an excerpt from a regular website blog post. 😣

I am including the link below (in part II) if you want the whole thing, but the bit (by Pádraig Ó Tuama) that caught me is this:

"I do not know how to resist the aggressions, broadcasted and more local, of our world. But I do know how to look for surprise.

#Creativity is not just confined to those who are painting, or dancing or making poems or music. It is also the making of a #community: a health care system; an education; a way of keeping people sanitised; a way of keeping people sane.

#Art is found in made things and in many made things — a transportation system in a city; a living wage for workers; negotiations to make border crossings safer; putting garlic in olives; sprinkling sea salt on fresh bread — & it is in the vulnerability and risk of cooperation that we find ourselves alive.

I continue to hold to the idea that speaking words of beauty reminds us of the possibility of language.

And especially in weeks when we hear the impoverishment of speech from many quarters, it is good to bask in something uplifting, to remind us of the power of language to do that most risky thing: to make something new.

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