Loss for Loss: The libation. Pure loss. "The act of pouring liquid or fire onto the ground." "The gesture that most resembles the flow of time." Irrevocable. Simplest. Oldest form of worship, celebration, mourning. — Pouring one out for Roberto Calasso, Gods Who Offer Libations

Fathers and sons: "There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence." — Samuel Johnson in Prodigal Father, Gifford Keen

Not what you remember but what remembers you: "When a man reaches a certain age, there are many things he can pretend to and have others believe; happiness is not one of them." — Jorge Luis Borges, The Memory of Shakespeare (1983)

"Our most important task at the present moment is to build castles in the sky." — Lewis Mumford, The Story of Utopias

Turbulent skies above the DC mall.

Expecting turbulence. Thomas Cole's Manhood

Trouble this: "Character influences the way you give and receive; it affects your loves and your children. It walks you home at night and can keep you long awake." — James Hillman, Force of Character

Without knowing: "I seem to speak, it is not I, about me, it is not about me … What am I to do, what shall I do? How proceed? By aporia? … I say aporia without knowing what it means.” — Samuel Beckett, Unnamable

Character Prison: “life escapes us while we huddle within the defended fortress of character.” — Sam Keen (November 23, 1931 – March 19, 2025) glosses Ernest Becker

"I [realized that], although 'our psychoanalytic forebears' had introduced a new psychology founded on the affects and on relating, they were quite often 'phobic' about relating and the affects, against which they [imposed] a sort of diktat, [a] no-entry [sign]." — F. Borgogno

"To me, if you want to see a world-class city, you look at the state of your weakest, poorest and most vulnerable people. That has got to be the measure of our society." — David Suzuki (2025) ~ (a real measure of society experienced and felt by all, though not suffered by all)

Analysand "Wisdom or oblivion – take your choice. From that warfare there is no release." — WRB, Memoirs of the Future

Kind of Symington to use if here. (file under: notes on how to pace implicit resistance).

Guilt both at craving privileges and knowing one does not want to pay the price of being dominant either by being the liability or being the asset. — (WR Bion, note to self, 1969)

"May my silences become more accurate." — Theodore Roethke, Words for Young Writers, ( notebook entries (1948-9), Straw for The Fire )

Color of a No: "The color of a thing is the color of a no: the negative of a spectrum of yes. High heaven says no to blue, returning azure to the eye. The leaves of summer say no to green, holding in the red. Charcoal, all yes, has no color, color being of no. " — Paul Valéry

"No sabemos lo que nos pasa y eso es precisamente lo que nos pasa." — José Ortega y Gasset We don’t know what is happening to us, and that is exactly what is happening to us.