A fantastic essay from Paul Kingsnorth that captures so much of my own feeling. It even turns on a poem by blessed Robinson Jeffers. I’ll warn you: it’s a bit gloomy, so if you’re feeling pretty good about the state of the world then you might not want to read it.

The argument against conceptual clarity with regard to Ultimate Things:

The Tao that can be told is not the true Tao;

Names that can be named are not true names.

Keep asking yourself: What sort of person do I want to be? You may fail to reach your goal. No one may ever notice your efforts. What you must not do, however, is allow others to steer your life, thoughts, decisions in directions that are in their—not your—interests.

Today’s solstice celebration food: Swedish meatball soup and pistachio drop cookies. Both highly recommended!

“Ten Theses on Intergenerational Stewardship” by Prince Michael zu Salm-Salm, a German aristocrat committed to long-term care of the land. I don’t hold with aristocracy but this is worth reading.

“Don’t obsess over politics”—click through to read a good quote posted by Patrick Rhone. It’s not healthy for people to think about politics as much as they do. And I understand why: too much is at stake. That’s the problem. Too few people hold too much power. Literally world-changing power. That is the province of the gods, not humans. Our governments and corporations have long since abandoned human scale, and our anxieties have increased accordingly.

I got a great bit of mail from @aa recently! The color of the leather coaster is beautiful. Check out his products here. He even has a snail mail list. Thank you, Aaron!

One of the perks of working remotely for the last couple of years: watching the Tour de France live. I got into watching cycling via the spring classics and they’ll always be special for me. But the Tour is really fun when you’re able to keep up with it live. 🚲

Spotted at a local greenhouse: tiny iridescent frog nestled inside a tiger lily.

Ted Goia on fourteen signs that you are living in a society without a counterculture. This is true. It is, however, ironic that the article takes the form of a listicle consisting of screenshots of tweets. As Cory Doctorow says, the internet has become “five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four.”