Not the foggy, foggy dew

“Light winds and limited air movement mean that air pollutants can build up close to the ground .… The air stagnation warning is in effect until 4 p.m. Monday.”  The World Health Organization tells us that 99% of the people on the planet suffer health consequences of air pollution. Most of us would love to limit the use of fossil fuels and clean up the planet, but our politicians are in thrall to corporate polluters, so this is what we have.

This post makes 10 years of blips, though I have been blipping fairly regularly for fourteen years. I love following your lives here. As the brilliant James Baldwin wrote, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” He didn’t say read each other’s blips, but he could have. 

We follow each other through births and deaths, aging, illness, small and large accomplishments, heartbreaking losses. We share books, art, music, poetry. We document protests and travels, architecture, landscape. We watch each other’s children and grandchildren grow and become more of themselves. We rage against injustice; we cheer each other on; we grieve and hope together. 

We post photos and journals, and we comment. Commenting is a balm, a reassurance. We comment to ask questions, to polish our thoughts, and to put love in the world. Comments erode the loneliness of the human condition and give us quick jolts of being seen and acknowledged. I love making and receiving them, though occasionally I like turning them off and relishing the silence of no comment. It turns blipping into more of a meditation. I think I’ll do that for a while, starting tomorrow.