The h2g2 Post 05.08.24

Created Jul 2, 2024 | Updated Aug 3, 2024

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Posted: 5^th August 2024

This week's title is Summer's Lease, because it 'hath all too short a date,' according to Shakespeare. Clockwise from upper left: A green-eyed fly, a stunning pink set of lilies, Oreo the calf, who is black-and-white with a heart-shaped white patch on his forehead, a peacock butterfly caterpillar on some rock, a water beetle on the surface of a pond, profuse magenta hollyhocks, a rocky but grassy hillside with sheep, a brilliant orange sunset over a green landscape, some purple plums, and a pink hibiscus with a bumblee inside.

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

– Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Because the Bard is right, let us enjoy this summer with might and main. Even if it's too hot and we're worrying about climate change. Even if people are behaving badly on every conceivable level. Let us fight the urge to yell at them. Instead, let us ignore them if we can't do anything about them.

Let us, instead, concentrate on the serious task of noticing things: the beauty around us. The insights of other people. The sights and sounds and smells and ideas and sheer joy of what is good about this planet.

That miraculous silver-coloured grasshopper Tavaron found in her kitchen.

That caterpillar that's going to become a glorious butterfly (but is pretty cool as a caterpillar, too). The green-eyed fly. The beetle magically walking on water. The endearing bumblebee in the amazing hibiscus.

What have we done to deserve such beauty? Why do we not stand in awe and send silent thanks to the universe for the privilege of being here?

The sheep on the hillside, the spotted calf in the pen, the flowers by the riverbank, the sky putting on a show at sundown: witnesses to what we should love and be grateful for – and vow to preserve for the children of the future.

Want bad enough, dare I say, to decide once and for all that it might actually be worth being a little less greedy, if it saves the Earth? A little less hateful to our neighbours, if it makes peace? A little more tolerant, a little kinder, a bit more generous?

Just saying.

Please enjoy our content. We've got a couple of stories still going – I have done a job on history, but not as much as history did. (Read Suetonius and decide if he was fake news.) FWR has Romans in, too.

Awix weighs in with a thoughtful analysis in his laudable search for a 'moral premise' in an unusual cinematographic place. You owe it to yourself to read his musings on the 'destiny of modern culture.' Especially if you like minions.

Send more Stuff. And have a wonderful week, friends.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

Cover for The Building, DG's new book, available from Lulu.

Cover for A Crime Has Been Committed, the latest omnibus book, available from Lulu.

Why should you buy	Proceeds go to site upkeep.
h2g2 fiction? (Click the pic.)	Plus, they're fun to read! (Click the pic.)

Quote of the Week:
I don't like much about the Supreme Court but I do respect their rigid textual interpretation of Trek canon.

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