It amazes me how long one can live and still learn something new every day. The Atomic Dome, I did not know! Of course I look at it thinking it could be an electrifying film location for a movie involving Frankensteinian research...and the little bunny stands unknowingly unconcerned in Joshua Tree of Life Land. Regardless, we went to see the Oppenheimer movie a couple weeks ago. It was horrific. And another film on YouTube - "Trinity and Beyond - the Atomic Bomb Movie" makes it ever more clear how the US destroyed and kept destroying the planet with atomic tests until the 1960s. My father was in Alaska during WW2. It took many many many years for him to finally tell me what he did. Finally, in the late 1990s he told me, in tears. He separated families, Japanese people married to Alaskans and sent them to the concentration camps in the USA. He knew America was playing the same game Germany had been doing. It hurt him worse than anything he had ever known because, ya see, my dad was orphaned by the time he was 7 years old in 1928. Tearing families apart was tearing his heart out. Blessings to your dad, too, Patti.
I went to Hiroshima this past June, very powerful and really changed my perspective in the "justification" I was taught in school. My heart broke for those people. We must do better.
I appreciate the reminder to stay in gratitude. It’s hard not to feel hopelessness with the constant battering of stress from all of the things that are happening. Thank you. Enjoy the rabbit energy. That may have been your gift that morning.
Con qué facilidad la vida aparece entre los escombros de la muerte ¡
Gracias Patty Smith por compartir tu mirada, es una mirada que sabe ver la grandeza de las cosas aparentemente sencillas. Pero ohh, que complejas ¡ Y cómo la vida. Un abrazo con mucho cariño desde Perú. Muchos te amamos por aquí ¡
Thank you Patti, as always, for your beautiful words. I am preparing for some travel myself--my fiance is away and I'm alone right now (but going to meet up with him soon). Things are a bit stressful at the moment and your words and presence are soothing to me--both here on Substack and via the audiobook versions of Devotion and M Train (both of which I have read and re-read many times)--so you are currently keeping me company. Thank you for your art, your words, and your voice. They are invaluable to me. So I just wanted to thank you, deeply, for this. I hope your tour and travels continue smoothly and well!
Thank you Patti like you l abhor war and Hiroshima was the most appalling thing to do to fellow human beings. It feels like I’ve spent most of my life fighting against war and campaigning for nature and wildlife. How lovely to see the clear night sky and a shooting star, did you make a wish? A beautiful day is dawning here and l shall walk by the canal under the beautiful trees and feed the ducks and look at the flowers and berries which are beginning to appear. Yes the simple things are good. Oh and l loved the rabbit. Safe travels 🙏
The small things are the BIG things. I think of these as exquisite moments. Seeing the rabbit, viewing the meteor....those are the precious things that help us bear the other burdens.
Much love. Stay safe and keep cool Patti <3
It amazes me how long one can live and still learn something new every day. The Atomic Dome, I did not know! Of course I look at it thinking it could be an electrifying film location for a movie involving Frankensteinian research...and the little bunny stands unknowingly unconcerned in Joshua Tree of Life Land. Regardless, we went to see the Oppenheimer movie a couple weeks ago. It was horrific. And another film on YouTube - "Trinity and Beyond - the Atomic Bomb Movie" makes it ever more clear how the US destroyed and kept destroying the planet with atomic tests until the 1960s. My father was in Alaska during WW2. It took many many many years for him to finally tell me what he did. Finally, in the late 1990s he told me, in tears. He separated families, Japanese people married to Alaskans and sent them to the concentration camps in the USA. He knew America was playing the same game Germany had been doing. It hurt him worse than anything he had ever known because, ya see, my dad was orphaned by the time he was 7 years old in 1928. Tearing families apart was tearing his heart out. Blessings to your dad, too, Patti.
I went to Hiroshima this past June, very powerful and really changed my perspective in the "justification" I was taught in school. My heart broke for those people. We must do better.
Thank you, Patti!
I appreciate the reminder to stay in gratitude. It’s hard not to feel hopelessness with the constant battering of stress from all of the things that are happening. Thank you. Enjoy the rabbit energy. That may have been your gift that morning.
Con qué facilidad la vida aparece entre los escombros de la muerte ¡
Gracias Patty Smith por compartir tu mirada, es una mirada que sabe ver la grandeza de las cosas aparentemente sencillas. Pero ohh, que complejas ¡ Y cómo la vida. Un abrazo con mucho cariño desde Perú. Muchos te amamos por aquí ¡
Thank you Patti, as always, for your beautiful words. I am preparing for some travel myself--my fiance is away and I'm alone right now (but going to meet up with him soon). Things are a bit stressful at the moment and your words and presence are soothing to me--both here on Substack and via the audiobook versions of Devotion and M Train (both of which I have read and re-read many times)--so you are currently keeping me company. Thank you for your art, your words, and your voice. They are invaluable to me. So I just wanted to thank you, deeply, for this. I hope your tour and travels continue smoothly and well!
That was very moving.
Thanks for sending your thoughts and impressions. It looks very bright indeed where you are!! Must be beautiful in the very early morning.
“Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you
You were trying to break into another world
A world I never knew
I always kind of wondered
If you ever made it through
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you”
B. Dylan, 1989
I live in the high dark desert, with eyes to the swath the edge of the galaxy. It’s amazing, confounding, and sometimes terrifying(?).
But now whenever I see a shooting star, I will think of you my dear Ms Smithposium.
“Remember the departed and dance with the living”!!!!
Love that
Thank you, Patti. A most touching tribute and commentary.
Thank you Patti like you l abhor war and Hiroshima was the most appalling thing to do to fellow human beings. It feels like I’ve spent most of my life fighting against war and campaigning for nature and wildlife. How lovely to see the clear night sky and a shooting star, did you make a wish? A beautiful day is dawning here and l shall walk by the canal under the beautiful trees and feed the ducks and look at the flowers and berries which are beginning to appear. Yes the simple things are good. Oh and l loved the rabbit. Safe travels 🙏
The small things are the BIG things. I think of these as exquisite moments. Seeing the rabbit, viewing the meteor....those are the precious things that help us bear the other burdens.
Patti, you saw one of the Perseid meteors on a dry August summer night. It must have been beautiful.
It's a time of day, or apparently night, thing. haha