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End Of May 2023
Sorry, there weren’t any cool food days associated with today. If you like parrots, you might be glad to know it’s 🦜 World Parrot Day 🦜.
🌼 May 🌷 Flowers 🌼
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~Henry Ward Beecher
May 2023 is basically over and I’m glad I’ve survived it. Lots of stress and a bit of bad news made it a less than spectacular month.
The bad news is that my A1C has jumped alarmingly, despite my attempts to manage my diet. Guess I’ll need an intervention.
The stress is the ever-mounting scope of things needing to be done, things that won’t fucking stay done and the stuff I have no damned idea how to do but am expected to anyhow.
My typical response to such stimuli is to simply say, Fuck It!
The thing is that the stimuli also poke at another typical response of mine. Fuck You! The idea of being overwhelmed by a bunch of random tasks, either by volume or by collective difficulty, is irritating in the extreme.
Where the attitude of gratitude comes into it is that I’m grateful that I have the capacity to overcome this challenge.
I may seem more hostile than grateful, but it is what it is.
This Day In History ⚔️
Mongols: Expedition of Subutai and Jebe – Battle of Kalka 1223 DOCUMENTARY
I was looking for something interesting in association with today’s date and I saw this particular battle in 1223.
Despite the absolutely atrocious things they did, I’ve always had an interest in the Mongol Empire. Their holdings ranged from Hungary to Southeast Asia.
Following in the traditions of plains invaders from Scythians, Huns, Bulgars, Magyars and Cumans, the Mongols came roaring out of what is currently Siberia and a couple of the former Soviet -stans.
Their rule has been celebrated as religiously tolerant and effectively laissez-faire as long as you paid the tribute they demanded of you.
On the other hand, if you resisted their absolute rule in any way they would completely depopulate your city and burn it down. Sacked cities with mountains of skulls where people used to be were meant to be a signal to subsequent targets.
Their explosion onto the world stage created an empire that encompassed more land area than any prior warlord, including Alexander the Great.
Like Alexander, the death of the Great Khan also sounded the death knell of this enormous empire. It broke up into factional regions, divided among the descendents of Genghis Khan.
As with most traditionally nomadic societies, settling down in their fiefdoms led to decadence, laziness, weakness and collapse. The Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate were devoured from within by more energetic successor civilizations.
The Yuan Dynasty of China was viewed by the Chinese as an oppressive regime of invaders, but ultimately was beholden to the same basic culture and administrative system.
The Mongols’ drive to expand and conquer was pursued by the Great Khan’s grandson, Kublai. That didn’t always end as well as the campaigns of Genghis Khan did.
As it turns out, there’s another May 31st invasion at the other end of the Mongol Empire in 1293. This is one of those invasions that didn’t pan out.
The Mongol Invasion of Java and the Rise of Majapahit
🌷 Hope 🌼 Springs 🌼 Eternal 🌷
Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic. ~Norman Cousins
Surprisingly, I’ve made some progress on The Sentinels. I am doing much better at setting aside some time for writing.
Why? Because it matters. I’ve got 💩 to do.
As problematic as pantsing can be for getting things done, it continues to open up new treasures in the story.
If that seems cryptic, it is. I’m not here to give away the whole story, y’all. I haven’t even written the whole story. I’m discovering it as I go along.
As difficult as that can be, it’s the toolbelt I have. I’m rolling with it for the first draft so I can mine the best bits for submission to an editor some day.
That’s it for one lovely 💐Spring🌷 month. I’ve got a bunch of stuff that ought to already be done dragging the hell over to June. Yay…