The Power of Ordinary
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Note: this missive is one day late because I was so out of it yesterday from round two of a shingles vaccine, I completely forgot! Hello friends, The world lost two powerful, compassionate people this past week, Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson and Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy. Both of them found power in the world around us and in the human experience. “If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.” –Joanna Macy Both touched many lives. Each of us has this power within us, if we commit to love rather than succumbing to fear. There is much to be fearful of in this world, but with love on our side? We cannot fail. Oh, things may feel like failure, time and time again, but if we place ourselves in what I call the “long arc” we will find that our efforts to love are not failures at all. Love connects us to each other. Love offers hope. Love—and grit, anger, joy, and determination—keeps us going. Love reminds us to try. “I don’t have a single plan for my life more important than learning to love people well.” – Andrea Gibson Like Joanna Macy, I too, believe that the efforts ordinary people are what will help society heal. Like Andrea Gibson, my most important task is to keep returning to love. We see love in action all around us, if we remember to look for it. Ordinary people feeding one another. Ordinary people standing up against terrorism. Ordinary people organizing to help their communities. Ordinary people joining rescue parties. Ordinary people blocking trucks and surrounding neighbors with their love. Ordinary people making music, baking bread, and sharing moments of life. There is power in our ordinary lives. I hope we claim that, and use it to sow good. Best wishes — Thorn
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T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, Years ago, writer Starhawk penned a novel in which city neighborhoods had fruit trees growing on the sidewalks, so anyone who was hungry could partake. It was a beautiful vision of a world we could live in, if we chose to. I now live in a city neighborhood with fruit trees growing on the sidewalk. Pear. Apple. Plum. Fig. Cherry. But, more often than not, the fruit falls and rots on the concrete in the sun. This happens unless the person who lives in the home near the tree...
“I’m always writing about the same thing, which is the human condition.” — Terry Brooks, fantasy author, WorldCon 2025 Hello friends, I’m writing this from WorldCon—the World Science Fiction and Fantasy convention—in Seattle Washington. I’ve listened to some interesting panels and talks so far: on Indigenous futures, on Afrofuturism, on the unsung heroes of the space program and magical systems in fantasy, plus some indie publishing business panels. I’ve talked with writers and readers both,...
Hello friends, On a walk the other day, I encountered a big metal sign covered in layers of peeling stickers. One read “Don’t look back! You are not going that way!” I snapped a photo and headed forward. But, as intended, the old sticker got me thinking. First, it reminded me of an old card I kept in my office for years. A Mary Engelbreit print, it wasn’t my usual style, but the message was clear. It was a person at a crossroads and the street sign read “Your life,” in one direction and “No...