Three Beautiful Things 06-26-2026: Blood, Sweat & Tears Again, Starting *War and Peace*, Bed Time Meditations by Hwang Bo-Reum

 1. I enjoyed the responses that came my way in the wake of David Clayton-Thomas' death and my thoughts about Blood, Sweat & Tears' second, self-titled, album. Rich Brock posted his appreciation for the song "Sometimes in Winter" and I was 100 percent with him. I thought a lot about that track while remembering my love for this album, but because Steven Katz wrote it and sang it, mentioning it didn't fit with my focus on David Clayton-Thomas and BS&T cover tunes. 

I'll just say that in high school I used to get all dew-eyed and dreamy whenever I listened to "Sometimes in Winter". 

2. It was a banner day today in my reading life. I started Leo Tolstoy's thick masterpiece War and Peace. I enjoyed how getting started reading this book transported me back to my thousands of year as a student. I needed to prepare to read it. One of the translators wrote the Introduction to this Vantage Classics edition and I read it and especially enjoyed its last several paragraphs that covered his approach to translation. 

I also, for some reason, enjoyed how slowly I'll have to read. Characters speak in French sometimes and the translations of the French are at the bottom of the page. This edition is also generously footnoted, mostly with historical explanations of figures and events Tolstoy refers to that are connected to the early 19th century's Napoleonic Wars. So I'm having to stop, read translations at the bottom of the page or read footnotes (really endnotes) found in the back of the book. 

Keeping characters with sometimes complicated Russian names straight will challenge me, slow me down. I'll take notes and frequently need to refer to the list of characters published in this edition for reference. 

With all that said, I found the early pages of War and Peace compelling, already psychologically fascinating. 

I look forward to moving forward, however slowly -- and, for unhurried me, slow is good. So is the work War and Peace will require. 

3. A while back, Debbie talked quite a bit about how much she enjoyed the Korean author Hwang Bo-Reum's book of short meditations entitled, Every Day Read.

I read that title as a mandate. Hey! Every single day! Read something! 

I couldn't sleep when I went to bed Friday night and so I started reading Hwang Bo-Reum's very short reflections on different aspects of reading. Here are a few examples: "Read Small Books", "You Don't Always Have to Finish It", "Visiting the Library". 

I read over half the book before I nodded off. 

I enjoy the simplicity and wisdom of her chapters, and it was the perfect book to read in bed, even though it didn't really help me fall asleep. It stimulated me and kept me awake! 

Oh, well. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-25-2026: *The Lucky and the Left* -- It's Not *Portlandia*, RIP David Clayton-Thomas, The Noir World of Portland

 1. I knew when I returned to Willy Vlautin's book The Lucky and the Left late this morning that, aside from eating, resting my eyes, and letting Gibbs out and back in the house, I wouldn't do anything else until I finished it. 

I was right. 

Brief  background: Along with writing novels, Willy Vlautin works as a house painter and is the songwriter and lead guitarist of the Portland retro country soul band (the band's description) The Delines. He played a similar role for several years in another band, Richmond Fontaine. 

The Lucky and the Left is a Portland novel that is not taking place in the world of Portlandia, not a story about characters living in service to the slogan "Keep Portland Weird", not a story about downtown post- George Floyd confrontations between law enforcement, demonstrators, and Proud Boys in Portland, nor is it about anything else that commonly stereotypes Portland. 

No, Willy Vlautin writes about the fading working class world of Portland, about people hanging on by a thread, with much of the story taking place in St. John and neighboring areas of North Portland. It's about house painters, a stripper, waitresses, the aisles of Safeway and Fred Meyer (not Whole Foods and Market of Choice), broken families, cans of Olde English 40s, diners, and dive bars. 

In this world of brokenness, family violence, hard work, and adolescent anger, the novel centers around a relationship that develops between Eddie, a house painter, and Russell, Eddie's eight-year-old next door neighbor and Eddie's dog, Earl. 

I'll leave it at that. If you should happen to read this book, you'll want to know as little as possible about what transpires and experience this world and these characters without spoilers. 

Physical violence didn't dominate this novel, but when it occurred, I'll just say it was difficult for me to bear.

2. Today I read the news of the death of David Clayton-Thomas, known primarily for his work as the lead singer for Blood, Sweat &Tears.

Clayton-Thomas first appeared with Blood, Sweat & Tears on the band's second album, titled simply Blood, Sweat & Tears. 

When I bought and listened to this album in the summer of 1969 (it was released in 1968), its blending of rock, blues, jazz, gospel, and, briefly, classical music gave me a deep pleasure I'd never felt before. 

In junior high, I had bought at least one Al Hirt album (Honey in the Horn) and had collected several Herb Alpert albums and so I'd already developed a love for trumpet driven music, but nothing I'd heard prepared me for the instrumentation of Blood, Sweat & Tears in support of the incredible vocal range and stylings of David Clayton-Thomas. 

Now, fifty-eight years after the release of Blood, Sweat & Tears, two of its features stand out to me, two things I never could have said about this album when I was fifteen years old. 

First, the album opened and closed with "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie". These two tracks were adaptations of French composer Erik Satie's 1888 composition for piano entitled, "Trois Gymnopedies."

Those classical music tracks transported me, at fifteen years old, into a dreamy world of beauty and wonder. I know now, that along with George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris", these two tracks became my gateway into classical music, a love I pursued more purposefully in my college years as I attended the Spokane Symphony for the first time, listened to classical albums in the library with headphones at North Idaho College, and began to purchase and play classical music albums. 

This impact of Blood, Sweat & Tears came back to me today. I had Symphony Hall on the radio as I read The Left and the Lucky and the great classical guitarist Christopher Parkening came on the air playing Erik Satie's "Trois Gymnopedes". Listening to him delivered me back to the other worldly experience Satie gave me, via BS&T in 1969 and also took me back to when used to listen to Parkening play Bach on the guitar on an LP I bought on a whim, never having heard of Parkening, at the Whitworth College bookstore. 

Secondly, I didn't think much about this when I was fifteen years old, but now I know that David Clayton-Thomas was a brilliant interpreter of songs other artists had recorded. At fifteen, I didn't know that, say, when The Turtles recorded Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" or when Vanilla Fudge recorded The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" that this was known as one artist covering a song first done by another. 

Now, all these decades later, I've come to love listening to cover versions of songs and three of Clayton-Thomas's covers stand out to me on the Blood, Sweat & Tears album. 

In no particular order, here they are, three songs that Clayton-Thomas and BS&T borrowed from other musical traditions and genres and made their own.

"You've Made Me So Very Happy" was first recorded by Motown's Brenda Holloway in 1967 and Clayton-Thomas and the band manage to pay homage to the Motown sound while also transforming this song into a work of their own. 

"And When I Die" was written by the great singer-songwriter Laura Nyro when she was 17 and was recorded in 1966 by Peter, Paul and Mary. Later on, Nyro recorded the song herself. Both versions are beautiful. Mary Travers takes the vocal lead in the first version and Laura Nyro sings the song solo in her version. I listened just now to the it recorded live at the Manhattan folk club, The Bottom Line. 

The Blood, Sweat & Tears version brings a new power to this song with the instrumental arrangement and David Clayton-Thomas, like Peter, Paul &Mary and Laura Nyro, sings it with soulful power while taking it out of the folk and acoustic blues realm and into a realm of jazz and blues that has its own power. It's unforgettable. 

Now, all these years later, I think the gutsiest cover on this album is of the iconic Billie Holliday's song "God Bless the Child". A part of me says, whoa, bro, leave Billie alone! But I'm glad Blood, Sweat & Tears didn't leave this song alone. To me, they open the song in church and then it begins to swing a bit and the great feel David Clayton-Thomas has for this song takes it over. But, the goose bump moment comes for me at 3:10 with the jazzy breakout of piano, trombone, trumpet, and saxophone solos. Then back comes Clayton-Thomas and someone brought a harmonica to church and as the song winds down, we are back in the pews again and guys take us out of this song with the same kind of worshipful sound they played to bring us in. 

Really. The more I think about it, this album might have had more impact on my future love of multiple genres of music than any other, especially when I was in my teens. 

RIP David Clayton-Thomas (1941-2026). 

3. Back in April, not knowing a thing about Willy Vlautin, Debbie and I went to the Bing in Spokane to hear him interviewed by Jess Walter. 

The interview is archived with the other Northwest Passages presentations on YouTube.

I listened to this interview again tonight, having finished The Left and the Lucky. 

The interview reminded me that Willy Vlautin set out to give this story a noir feel. He wanted to create a world in the shadows of Portland, a world of brokenness, instability, potential and realized violence, and of cigarettes and alcohol. He also wanted to leaven this noir world with decency. He succeeded. All of these dark elements co-exist with certain characters who are good -- as the novel develops, I wondered: will the darkness or the decency prevail? 

I found out. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-23-2026: Spontaneous Trip to Worley, I Visit the House of Happiness, Reading Willy Vlautin

1. I needed to take care of some of my life's loose ends and spent time this morning tidying up the kitchen, filing papers, looking for and finding a document I thought I'd lost, putting clothes away -- that sort of thing. 

Around 1:00 or so, I decided I needed to get out of the house. I hadn't been to Winning Wednesday for a while at the CdA Casino. I made a spur of the moment decision to head that way. 

I drove to CdA, fueled up at Costco, and headed down to Worley. 

Spinning reels was not a disaster nor did I come out ahead. 

I hadn't eaten all day when I arrived, and after spinning reels for about an hour or so, I went to the Red Tail Bar and Grill and enjoyed a mushroom Swiss cheeseburger with fries. 

Lately, I've been enjoying jalapeno peppers with different food items and wished this burger had peppers on it, so I asked for hot sauce and I dressed my sandwich with catsup, yellow mustard, and one of the hot sauces my server brought out. 

Great move! 

I guess I'm going through a spicy burger/spicy food phase in my dotage. 

2. I left the casino around 6:00 or so and in CdA I stopped by the house of happiness, Panhandle Ice Cream. 

The women serving ice cream and even making the occasional espresso drink managed the throng wanting ice cream with grace, friendliness, and genuine smiles. Their calm, focused, cheerful, efficient manner impressed me! 

I ordered a single scoop of Salted Caramel Brown Butter Cookie ice cream in a dish and I loved it. 

3. I stepped away from the happy bunch of people coming in and out and found a table a ways away from the door and the smiling adults and children talking and laughing over ice cream just outside the shop. 

I sat at a table with ice cream and a book. 

I continued reading Willy Vlautin's latest novel, The Left and the Lucky. I started it last night. 

Right away, in very few pages and by employing spare language and vivid details (Rollos, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Lean Cuisine, shopping at Fred Meyer and more), Vlautin establishes the world of this story. He introduces us to a stressed single mom who works a night shift, has moved her family in with her frail mother, finds out her fifteen-year-old son's girlfriends is pregnant, and has a second grade undersized son who wets the bed, rarely speaks, and gets bullied by his older brother. 

I know the story is set in Portland and, as of now, I think it takes place in the St. Johns neighborhood. 

I'll correct this observation later if it turns out to be inaccurate. 

This book is quite a change from Lonesome Dove and Our Moon, but not a huge change from the Willy Vlautin book I finished not long ago, The Horse. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-23-2026: Earth and Moon, Moon and Science and Money, Evacuation Project Essentially Finished

 1. Today I finished reading Our Moon. The last two chapters focused on the Apollo program and beyond. These chapters looked at how the rocks the astronauts brought back to Earth have helped scientists better understand the geological history of the moon, which, in turn, informs our understanding of the geological history of Earth. 

Rebecca Boyd also focused on the impact seeing Earth from outer space had on the astronauts and the kind of perspectives seeing pictures of Earth from so far away could potentially have on us here at home, with emphasis on how borderless Earth looks from afar and how nearly unimaginably miniscule Earth is in relation to the vastness of the space it occupies. 

2. But for entrepreneurs, wealthy people like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, the moon is not valuable for the geologic history it helps us understand nor does it have the spiritual value it has held for millennia for cultures worldwide.  

No, it's a place to colonize, mine, and exploit. 

The merging of science and scientific discovery with the development of wealth always complicates things. 

The moon is no exception. 

3. If we were to be given a READY evacuation order, after today, we are ready. If we were given a SET order, we could have the car loaded in under ten minutes and then we'd be ready to GO. 

I have a couple of small things still to attend to -- things we'd be fine without -- but, on the whole, this project I've been slowly working on is in very good shape. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-22-2026: Time Boggles My Mind, Family Calendar in Place, Next Day Pleasures

 1. As I read more of Our Moon, it's mind boggling (but completely understandable) to me that for approximately 299,550 of the about 300,000 years that humans have existed, it was widely assumed and accepted that Earth was the center of the universe. I have been trying to imagine a 300,000 year timeline and trying to picture how miniscule the about 450 year old age of modern science is on that timeline. I'd love to come up with an analogy along the lines of "a drop in the ocean", but I don't have one just yet. 

What incredible breakthrough it was, thanks largely to the telescope, when scientists and others began to see the universe's incomprehensible vastness and how overwhelmingly true it is that Earth is not at the center. Punishing backlash ensued, especially early on, because this knowledge of the universe called so many age-old understandings, both religious and scholarly, of the Earth's place in the universe into question. 

2. Debbie, Adrienne, Jack, and Eloise have a lot going on in New York, Carol, Paul, and Christy have a lot going on here in Kellogg, and, well, I have a Book Club meeting on July 7th, so Christy spearheaded the creation of a family Google calendar so we can all know what each other is doing. 

It took me a while to get the hang of how this shared calendar works, but with Christy's help, I figured it out and I'm happy that I can refer to it and know when everything from a used book sale to garden tours to Paul and Carol staying at the Davenport Hotel for their 40th wedding anniversary to what's happening in Valley Cottage and more is happening. 

3. I took pleasure today in being able to extend Sunday evening's family dinner another day. The seafood pasta Christy fixed aged really well and I very much enjoyed eating it cold; Christy's garlic bread was also very tasty on the second day as was the pastaless Italian salad I prepared. Yes, I would have enjoyed a next day helping of apple crisp with caramel ice cream, but no problem. Being able to eat the leftovers I had on hand uplifted me. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-21-2026: 100 Percent Containment, Emptiness As a Good Thing, Movie Soundtracks After Family Dinner

 1. As I write this post at 9:30 on Monday morning, I just read an update on the Gold Run Fire, between Elizabeth Park and Big Creek. The fire is 100% contained. The operation is winding down and many crew members along with equipment can return to their home units. Monitoring will continue and Avista crews can now enter the burn site and repair damaged poles and wires. 

2. Now, about Sunday. 

I took a break from the moon today. I did, however, continue to think about emptiness and how necessary it is. I thought about how when we empty ourselves of ego, fixed ideas, the intrusions of the past, and other ways we fill our inner life, then we can be receptive to what the present moment brings us. 

I agree with Hugh's comment to me that my life is full of friends, family, acquaintances, and blessings, but, paradoxically this cup of mine that runneth over must also be emptied to make room for the blessings, experiences, new things to learn, new ideas, and so on that will, no doubt, come my way today. 

It's a paradox for sure. We don't want our lives to feel empty, but, as the Tao de Ching calls to our attention, we need the emptiness of the cup or of the newly built house in order to fill our cups (mine is filled with a latte right now!) or bring our houses to life.

By the way, we have common ways of talking about the perils of fullness when we say someone is "full of crap" or another is so "full of herself (or himself)". 

Right?

3. Our family dinner this evening definitely had our cups running over with delicious food and lively conversation. 

Christy hosted and created tonight's dinner. She asked Paul what he'd like as a Father's Day dinner. He requested a seafood pasta dinner and so Christy fixed a superb linguine with shrimp, clams, and scallops main course accompanied with Italian garlic bread and I brought a leafless, pastaless Italian salad blending zucchini noodles, marinated artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, green onion, both red and orange sweet peppers, cilantro, and Parmesan cheese. I dressed the salad with the artichoke marinade and olive brine. (That worked for me -- hope it worked for the others!)

Carol baked an apple crisp for dessert and I got to recommend ice cream to go with it. Carol, understandably, didn't find any turtle ice cream in town, but I recommended caramel swirl as a Plan B and she brought both a salted caramel swirl and a cold brew coffee and caramel ice cream.

Christy assigned us to each bring a song or a track from a movie soundtrack that we like and to explain how the music connects with the movie. Here's what each of us played for the others:

I played the theme from the 1988 Italian movie Cinema Paradiso. 

Carol played Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Wayne's World.

Paul played Cat Stevens singing "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" from Harold and Maude.

Christy played the wedding version of the nuns singing, with orchestral accompaniment, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" from The Sound of Music. 

It was fun talking about movies and music in addition to other topics (yes, including the moon!). 

Three Beautiful Things 06-20-2026: Organize, Nothingness and Emptiness, Existentialism in My Life

 1. Three boxes arrived today with dog food, toothpaste, toothbrushes, a portable litter box, bottled water, a travel soap dish, and flashlight. A few more things will arrive tomorrow. Then all I have to do is decide how to organize things and I'll wrap up this project. 

2. Rebecca Boyle opens her book Our Moon, with a description of the moon's nothingness: no air, no life, no color, and so on. We humans, however, project much upon this nothingness: our dreams, hopes, ambitions, curiosity, imagination, and so on. 

As I read more deeply into this book, I keep thinking about Wallace Steven's poem "The Snow Man". It in the poem's speaker looks upon a bleak winter landscape of "pine trees crusted with snow" and "junipers shagged with ice" and concludes that "being nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is." 

Boyle's book opens with the "nothing that is" the moonscape, but as the book develops and she examines the creation of the moon, the rocks astronauts brought back, the role of the moon in shaping our sense of time, the moon's role in ancient religions as an embodiment of divinity, and a host of other things, she examines the "nothing that is not there". 

Thinking about "The Snow Man" and the moon transported my thinking to Chapter 11 of the Tao de Ching, which is a meditation upon emptiness:

We join spokes together in a wheel,

but it is the center hole

that makes the wagon move. 

We shape clay into a pot,

but it is the emptiness inside 

that holds whatever we want. 

We hammer wood for a house,

but it is the inner space

that makes it livable. 

We work with being, 

but not being is what we use. 

In short, the nothing that is there and the nothing that is not there.  

3. Ever since I was introduced to existentialism in the fall of 1973, just a few months after the Zinc Plant accident I've mentioned (many times) before, I've restlessly entertained the possibility that we humans come into the world empty, as being nothing, undefined.  This is the core tenet of existentialism. Existence precedes essence. We are not essentially anything.  

The Tao de Ching is helpful here. We are, in other words, like the hole in the wheel, the emptiness of the cup, or the inner space of the newly built house. The existentialist asserts that we are frighteningly free. We bear an enormous responsibility to make meaning out of our lives, to meaningfully turn emptiness into purpose, a responsibility that can lead to feelings of anxiety, dread, even nausea. We resist this freedom. Rather than make meaning ourselves, we let forces and influences outside of ourselves create meaning for us. We surrender our freedom and responsibility to dictate who we are and what life's meaning is. 

I'm not sure when I started reading Our Moon that I expected a book about the moon to lead me to thinking so much about these ideas about what it means to be a human being, but, as they say, here I am! 

 

Three Beautiful Things 06-19-2026: Home Work, Lunar Effects, Sausage Soup

 1. After a curbside pickup of groceries at Walmart, I stayed home today and worked on getting things in order around the house: laundry, kitchen cleanup, refining my preparation in case of an evacuation, and more. It doesn't make for a riveting blog post (zzz), but working on these tasks matters a lot! 

2. I'm learning more and more about the moon's impact on our lives here on earth as I slowly read Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle. The moon and the tides, over a nearly incomprehensible amount of time, slowly and incrementally affected how certain marine creatures evolved into land creatures. I bring this up because I read and hear people comment about what's natural and unnatural, usually asserting that natural means unchanging and to deviate from some sense of what is original, say, in humans, is unnatural (and immoral). 

But the reading I've been doing as a member of the Science and Nature book club and other reading I've done in the past (I'm thinking of Lulu Miller's Why Fish Don't Exist), convinces me that what is natural is change, is mutability, is flexibility and that what is unnatural is the idea of permanence in nature.  Humans, plants, animals, climate, bodies of water, the speed of Earth's rotation, the distance between Earth and the moon have all changed over the eons and the ways that this constant change, however gradual or quick, come about are complex and I'm learning more about the moon's influence upon life on Earth.

3. As I set my mind to fixing myself some dinner tonight, I suddenly remembered that there were two sausages in the fridge. I'd been thinking about making a bacon, bean, and vegetable soup, but I put that idea aside and began to imagine a sausage soup. 

It didn't really tax my imagination much. I sauteed white onion and celery along with the sausage and soon added zucchini, mushroom, frozen corn, and frozen green beans to the mix and poured what I had left in a box of beef broth over it all and cooked it slowly for a while. 

At first, I didn't season the soup. I wanted to see if the combination of these ingredients, especially the sausage, would be tasty enough and they were. 

All the same, I'd been reading about evolution and the importance of the emergence of amino acids to how living beings developed and so, with that on my mind, I added some Bragg Amino Liquid to the soup. It tasted great with the Amino Liquid and without and led me to hope that I'll remember in the future to fix myself a pot of sausage soup again. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-18-2026: Gold Run Fire Update, Evacuation Prep Continues, Rotini Salad

 1. Thursday's news from the Gold Run Fire between Big Creek and Elizabeth Park was good.

Most, not all, evacuated residents of Big Creek and Elizabeth Park could return home. 

The fire did not grow, at least not significantly. 

Firefighters completed a fire line around the entire perimeter of the fire. 

It's about 20-22% contained. 

Crews continue the hard work of securing and strengthening fire lines and monitoring hot spots. 

2. If some time in the future, law enforcement orders us to evacuate our home, I'll already have in the trunk a first aid kit, blankets, pillows, dried fruit, granola bars, almonds, and bottled water. Today I ordered a portable litter pan for Copper, food for Gibbs, bathroom stuff beyond what we use every day, an extra flashlight, and a few other things that we'll also keep in the trunk. 

I'm going to strategically place in the house other things like three days' worth of clothes, electronics, cords, portable phone charger, and important documents, making it so we can put our hands on them immediately if we need to make a quick exit. 

3. Having decided to fix myself salads not using lettuce, I gave Carol and Paul a head of lettuce thinking their rabbit Bunz would enjoy it, but Bunz might share with Carol and Paul. 

I made a rotini salad today that included black beans along with fresh vegetables. I dressed the salad with basil pesto, a new thing for me, and, oh yes, it worked. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-17-2026: Evacuation Preparation, Learning from Science, All is Change

 1. I started the mostly simple task today of preparing to evacuate our house if we receive such an order ever.  I've made a master list of things to pack and Debbie and I, communicating across the vast USA, have been discussing items we always want in the trunk of the car, ranging from dried fruit and nuts and granola bars to blankets, pillows, and sweatshirts.

A fire update:  as of 10:00 a.m. on June 18th: the evacuation notice for Big Creek and Elizabeth Park is still in effect and being evaluated. 

The fire is about 20% contained. Wednesday was a cooler day. That helped. Thursday looks to be warmer and the fire crews will be looking for increased activity within the fire's perimeter. 

Approximately 247 are assigned to the Gold Run Fire. 

2. I'm reading our next book club selection, Our Moon. I'm being strhetched by this book, as I was by previous books, because I am not well-informed about the details of history as seen through the lens of different branches of science.  The previous books we read expanded my knowledge and understanding of evolution (I didn't understand everything I read) and Our Moon is expanding my knowledge and understanding of different explanations regarding how the Earth and moon came into being and how their gravitational forces affect each other and how planet Earth is also affected by the gravitational pull of the sun and other planets. 

I know I'm not understanding everything I read in this book, but I sure enjoy going outside the areas of study that shaped my professional and continue to inform my personal life.  Not being well read in the world of science and having a lot to learn about the world of nature made joining this book club a great idea. 

3. Although I don't have a studied understanding of science, I'm enjoying the overlap I see between scientific study and my experience with literature and world religion.  Right now, I'm thinking particularly of Shakespeare (and when I think of Shakespeare my mind also goes to Buddha and to the Tao de Ching).

Science, Shakespeare, Buddha, and the Tao are all primarily concerned with mutability, that is, the everchanging nature of reality. 

Scientific study examines the objective evidence of how the moon's orbit fluctuates, how its gravitational force effects tidal changes and has an impact on Earth's climate, among other things. For Shakespeare, the moon was a central metaphor for mutability because night after night, the moon appeared different than it had the night before. Moonlight also served as a metaphor for how dimly we actually understand things, as if when it comes to perception and understanding, we live in a world more dimly lit by the moon than the more brilliant light of the sun. 

Buddhism is grounded in the precept that all is impermanent, subject to constant change. 

Likewise, the Tao teaches that everything is in a state of flux. 

Just one example of the centrality of mutability in the world of science: the theory of evolution is an explanation of species adapting to change, surviving, not by remaining static or original, but by changing in order to continue living in the everchanging world. 

The book Our Moon has the associative region of my mind cooking with gas. 

 

One Beautiful Thing and Then Things Get Dangerous Nearby When a Fire Breaks Out 06-16-2026: Good News for Ed and a Trip, Fire a Few Miles Away, Power Restored at 11:00 P.M.

 1. Today started with a mixture of good news and difficult news and as the day progressed, the news became darker and more dangerous. 

This morning, Ed called me with good news. He had just seen his urologist and the blood work he had done last week looked good. That was a relief. 

Soon thereafter, Carol and I heard from Christy that the pain in her leg was such that she had to pull out of our planned sibling outing to Spokane. No way were Carol and I going to go without Christy and so we canceled today's trip and we'll see if we can work out another date in June.

(It turned out to be fortuitous that we didn't go to Spokane. A very serious fire broke out in the Beacon Hill area. We had planned a visit to Hilyard, just west of the fire, and really had no business going on a pleasure trip to that vicinity. If you haven't seen the news or heard about it, it's a devastating fire.)

I knew Ed was most likely free after his doctor appointment so I called him and he agreed that it would be fun to go spin some reels at the CdA Casino. 

And it was. 

Neither of us had much luck, but we had fun playing machines, had great conversation going down and returning home, and enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Red Tail Bar and Grill. 

2. Toward the end of our stay, we both received alerts on our cell phones about the Beacon Hill fire just east of Spokane.

Strong winds blew all the way on our return trip. Both of us knew that a red flag warning about fires had been issued in the morning, but let me tell you what we didn't know. 

After dropping Ed off around 3 p.m., I pulled into the driveway and pushed the garage door opener and nothing happened. At first, I thought the garage opener needed fresh batteries, but once I walked in the house, I realized we had no power.

A message arrived on my phone from Avista telling me power would be restored around five.

Then, I found out from Stu that a fire had broken out nearby, a few miles east of Kellogg, south of the freeway, in the hilly region between Elizabeth Park and Big Creek. 

3. I learned the power outage was a safety measure carried out by Avista. 

I learned the sheriff ordered residents in Elizabeth Park and Big Creek to evacuate. The fire was travelling east and the sheriff put Osburn under a Be Ready order. 

The fire grew to over two hundred acres. 

I kept tabs on it via the Watch Duty app. 

Debbie called me, knowing that the power was out and that a fire was burning east of Kellogg. 

We talked. 

The winds subsided. 

The temperature got cooler, coming down from the mid-70s to the 50s, maybe even the 40s. 

Avista determined that it was safe enough to end the blackout,

Avista turned our power back on at 11. 

As I write this blog post on Wednesday morning at about 10:30, the fire has grown some and it's now 10 percent contained after hours of being 0 percent contained. 

There's not much wind this morning and it's cooler out today that it was yesterday. 

I'll be back this evening or tomorrow on this blog with an update. 

Three Beautiful Things 06-15-2026: I Finished *Lonesome Dove*, Mortality and Loss and Emptiness, Another Couscous Salad

It's almost midnight on June 16th. About an hour ago, our power returned after an eight hour power outage brought about by Avista's precautionary blackout after a fire broke out east of Kellogg on a red flag warning day. (Avista is our utility company.)

1. Tonight I finished reading Lonesome Dove. Maybe I'll have reason in a later post to write more about it, but for now I'll just say I found it a story of decisions and consequences, physical endurance, regret, failures, successes, violence, hatred, and love. It's about displacement, riddling its readers from beginning to end about whether there's such a thing as having a home in this world.  

2. It's also about mortality and loss and emptiness. The inner emptiness these displaced characters often feel is made physical by the open spaces they encounter in southern Texas before they drive cattle to Montana,  confronting the spaciousness of the Great Plains. The characters have to wrestle with mortality as several characters die in this book in a variety of ways, some of them detested and others deeply loved. 

3. I seem to be tired, temporarily of lettuce salad. After making couscous salad yesterday for family dinner, today I made another one. I changed it up a bit. I used black beans instead of chickpeas. I included black olives and the last of the Trader Joe's olive tapenade I had on hand. I dressed this salad with basil pesto and olive brine and I didn't have cucumber on hand, so I used zucchini.  I had used all my cherry tomatoes in Sunday's salad and didn't go to the store to replace them.

It worked.