CLEAR SKIN IS SO ATTRACTIVE I’D CHOP A TOE OFF FOR CLEAR SKIN FOREVER

Full moon at the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, Greece

Each spring, my daughter returns from the underworld ice-cold and frost-hard. The only light in her is the cheap reflection of gold, shining against the shadow of death. I show her the sun again, but it’s hard for her to thaw— she freezes the new buds in the night many times before she finally lets them bloom.

She can’t bear, at first, to let the sun kiss her cheeks, knowing she must lose the spring again. But she learns, and she laughs, as the days lengthen and shorten.

And then my daughter returns to the darkness, and winter comes again.

in light of Trump's inauguration speech declaring multiple national emergencies that require him to take god-knows-what executive actions immediately, I'd like to remember this chapter of "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder:

“Do not unsheath me without reason. Do not wield me without valor.”

inscription on the sword of a Giovanni della Bande Nere statue on the facade of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

im so popular my post got 5 entire likes