O Generous One by Timothy Snyder, a Substack link with more history of Ukraine then and now. Excerpt below.



Excerpt from the article:
“Carol of the Bells” stands out because it arises from a different tradition: that of Ukrainian folk songs, and in particular ancient Ukrainian folk songs welcoming the new year, summoning the forces of nature to meet human labor and bring prosperity. These are called shchedrivky, “carols of cheer” or, a bit more literally, songs to the generous one. The word “magic” is used a good deal around Christmas; this song has its origins in rituals that were indeed magical. And perhaps this is exactly why it reaches us.

Before the advent of Christianity, and for that matter for centuries afterwards, these songs orchestrated and encounter with the forces that could bring what was sought, which was the bounty of spring after the cold of winter. The pagan new year began, reasonably, in February or March, with the arrival of the swallows or the equinox; the carols of cheer were pushed back towards January or December 31st by Christianity -- and one in particular was pushed deep into December by Americans, transformed into a Christmas carol.

The melody that I heard in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Toronto as “Carol of the Bells” is a Ukrainian folk song. It was arranged as “Shchedryk” by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in the middle of the First World War, likely on the basis of a folk song from the Ukrainian region of Podilia. The four ancient guiding notes of the melody sound like the dripping of icicles joined by the singing of birds. Leontovych’s lyrics capture the earthy directness and incantatory purpose of the ancient songs. My English translation is no doubt inadequate and a little free -- in Ukrainian, for example, a dark-browed woman is by definition a beautiful woman, and so I have rendered her.

( Ukrainian text and English translation )

I don't email much with my mother, but not too long after I had cataract surgery, I heard she was nervous about having hers, so I wrote it up for her. Maybe this will be useful for someone else too.

It makes sense to be worried about any surgery, but this one is well-understood, superficial in the body, and the surgeons are well-practiced.

( Barely more fuss than going to the dentist )

I hope your surgeries go well and that you're happy with the correction you choose.

To Speak in Silence by Mary Robinette Kowal.

On the pump organ in the formal parlor sat two chickens carved in clay in the place in which, were this another home, one might find candles. The one on the right had a rooster’s comb and was shiny with red atop and a dark black bottom, as if he had been dipped in ink, which—of course—was the case.

A lovely atmospheric story. Part of the joy is discovering how it unfolds, so I won’t say more.

The Shocking Crash That Led One County to Reckon With the Dangers of E-Bikes by David Darlington. This is an unlocked New York Times article (posted to the Grizzly Peak Cyclists mailing list) about a bad e-bike crash in Marin County and the political fallout from it. Content note for description of the injury and medical treatment, although the teenager did survive.

The article sparked quite the discussion on the mailing list about reckless e-bike riders on multi-use paths, the pleasures of riding an e-bike and being able to go further and faster without a car, the differences between e-bikes (pedal assist) and e-motos (no pedaling required), and the disingenuousness of the concern about e-bike injuries when cars and motorcycles are far more dangerous to drivers, pedestrians, and the environment.

The person I ride with regularly rides an e-bike, and that has led me to appreciate them more. I look forward to owning one someday when I can't get to where I need to go on my acoustic/manual/regular bike. It's nice to know I have an option other than getting a car or taking lots of taxi rides. And, I still don't appreciate being passed without warning by people on silent fast vehicles who haven't learned bike manners.

The Balkan choir I sing with performed at a center for adults with disabilities on Friday, and we were vocally and enthusiastically received by the audience in their power and manual wheelchairs. It was stressful to prepare the songs for it, but fun once we were there, and I hope we'll do more like that.

One of the songs we sang is Otche Nash, a 4-part setting of the Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic, which is like a mix of Bulgarian and Russian.

When someone proposed learning the song at the ad hoc monthly group a year ago, I was grumpy about having something so fundamentally Christian shoved down my throat, and we put it aside. In this weekly choir we learn whatever the teacher gives us, so I had to make my peace with it. Another singer said she doesn't mind it because it's asking the Universe for good things. I guess so...

Eva Quartet recorded it, and here's a live performance.

Nora Samaran made a new post! On Conflict and Community Fabric. When we value community, we work through conflicts with them not because the individual relationship is important to us, but because the whole community is important to us.

In healthy human community, the kind that so many people say they want, and the kind study after study suggests people living in Western countries feel is missing in their lives, human beings are often in community with people with whom we aren’t individually or personally close, but who nonetheless form part of the larger circle of human bonds that forms the anchor and soilbed of our belonging.

I'm not sure I had read her prior post from 2021, Coercive Persuasion and the Alignment of the Everyday. In it she mentions "How We Show Up" by Mia Birdsong, which I got from the library. I loved the book, about all the different ways we can weave connections with each other rather than focusing on isolated little nuclear families. And it turns out Mia Birdsong lives right here in Oakland! My review.

She also linked to Be careful with each other by Rushdia Mehreen and David Gray-Donald. "How activist groups can build trust, care, and sustainability in a world of capitalism and oppression."

Collective care refers to seeing members’ well-being – particularly their emotional health – as a shared responsibility of the group rather than the lone task of an individual. It means that a group commits to addressing interlocking oppressions and reasons for deteriorating well-being within the group while also combatting oppression in society at large.

I loved her article The Opposite of Rape Culture is Nurturance Culture and I can't believe that was back in 2016. Nine years ago! Anyway, it's great to keep someone's feed on the list even if it seems like they'll never post again, because sometimes they do!

runpunkrun asked if I've read any good books lately, and I've been lucky enough to find several. Ongoing booklog at Curious, Healing.

The one I want to highlight today is Kitchens of Hope by by Linda S. Svitak and Christin Jaye Eaton with Lee Svitak Dean
Subtitle: How transforming ourselves can change the world

This book out of Minnesota is a celebration of immigrant success stories and food from around the world. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but I loved the photos and stories of how people connected with each other and found new places to thrive.

Highly recommended – I’m giving copies for the holidays this year.

Photography of the cooks and their dishes by Tom Wallace