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starsandhughes · 7 months

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Guide to Penalty Box: Sissy Lore, Character Relationships, Bits, History

i reread all of penalty box so you don’t have to! this post is mainly for my benefit, but also for anyone new to the series <3

General Masterlist — 22-23 Season — 23-24 Season

Sissy

Basic Things About Her:

She is NOT legally a Hughes! She grew up with them and they took her in when they moved to Michigan for Jack when he went to USNTDP. They call her their sister, she calls them her brothers, and calls Jim and Ellen mom and dad

Her birth parents were neglectful and mentally abusive. She often stayed at the Hughes house even in elementary school. They put a bed in their game room for her before the move where she got her own room

She is an event planner and has her own business!

Very, very obsessed with The Hunger Games series

She will quote it, reference it, and force everyone to watch it any chance she gets

She's a runner when she's drunk!

The whole group has air tags they use for parties because of this, and even then someone is normally physically attached to her

A story of her running away is in Cruel Weather (Part Two)

She '146' tattooed on her wrist. The 1 is for Trevor, the 4 is for Quinn and Luke, and the 6 is for Jack (and later, Jamie)

She'll joke around with Jack if he gets her on her nerves that the 6 is only for Jamie now

She has the date she moved in with the Hughes's on her collar bone in Roman numerals

She's a sleepy girl! Can't get ahold of her? She's most likely sleeping

She has many sons. Most of the UMich team 101 is a fatherless child, but some have fathers!

Fatherless children: Dylan, Mark, Adam, Luca, Seamus, and Rutger (Fathered children are listed under their father)

She's a bitter! Everyone is used to it, but any time it happens for the first time with someone new, someone has to explain that it's her little deranged way of showing love. Ethan will stick his arm out if she bites Luke (or anyone) to demand love

She goes under people's shirts when she's overwhelmed with emotions. When she does it, you know she trusts you

Sissy & Co are big fans of game nights and she is very, very competitive! They have monthly game nights in whatever way can

Every teammate, on all the teams, adore her and she loves them so much

She gives the teams (mainly the Ducks, obviously) good bags after each game! The more she learns at each player, the more personal the bags

She calls Troy and Dani Terry mom and dad, and she also calls Shatty mom

She's a huge Dallas Stars fan! Her favorite is Robo, and she always (with slim exceptions like if Quinn and Trevor etc play each other) flies to see any of her friends play against them.

She will drop everything if anyone, anyone needs her

She's terrified of storms

She's picky about who gets to call her Sissy and will fight over it.

Sissy exceptions: Dylan because he's known her so long, Cole gets a once a month pass, and Spencer Knight can anytime

Gives creative insults and has no filter

She's a Pink Whitney girly

She has weekly face times with Petey and Matty

She's so clumsy. Extremely so. She is frequently bruised because of it

She's really touchy and will cuddle and fall asleep on anyone

She's a Slytherin

She keeps scrapbooks! For literally anything and everything!

She loves poetry, and frequently uses Atticus poems

Random Lore:

She will leave at any given moment and tell no one. And not just to go out, she'll hop on a plane to see any of her boys. She won't even tell the person she's coming to see. She'll just show up. None of this out of spite, she's just forgetful

Once, she missed Quinn and spontaneously got on a plane to go see him while Trevor was gone without telling anyone. Not Trevor, not Quinn, no one. There was a big freak out. (This was not the first time)

She rented a minivan out of spite during the 2023 development camp so that she could take some of the Ducks boys out after it to get them know them better (it did not take long for the under 20s to call her mom)

In high school, she made her own NTDP hoodie with Jack's, Trevor's, Cole's, and Alex's numbers on the back and wore it every game

She'll occasionally give out gold star stickers (she's basically pavloving them) and once Jack annoyed her and she took his back

She gets her boys a trophy for their first goals of the season

There's a yearly tradition where the day before training camp begins for everyone, Sissy and the Hughes boys (and whoever wants to join) get together to work out together. Sissy is forced to participate but she does not do it for long before she taps out

Brock calls her Princess Hughes and she calls him her Blonde Princess

Frequent Gags:

She gives, and receives, penalties of various minutes for random things. It started from the Shoulder Check Showcase where Trevor did not get a tripping penalty (when he def should have)

Putting someone on probation

Telling someone they aren't friends/sons/etc for a random amount of minutes

Teasing between anyone is done if a "big" word is used. College dropout jokes are made

Random hashtags

Sap is said a lot. At any given opportunity. No one can stay serious for long. Also Simp, but less frequently

"Who's Sissy's least favorite Hughes" "Quinn" (this a gag with random commenters)

Various contracts will be mentioned. Mainly the Best Friend Contract and the Princess Treaty. I have no real explanations or full components of said contracts

Trevor protesting not being able to call her Sissy

Any mentions about high school or senior year. It's all a mystery. It is frequently said that she was crazier.

Most common insult is human dildo

She'll occasionally create the comment section herself and tell the boys to say nice things or specific things

What Jerseys She Wears:

Ducks: She rotates between Trevor's and Jamie's

Ducks vs Canucks: Trevor, Quinn, and Jamie have to play air hockey to decide. If there's no time before, they play iMessage games

Ducks/Canucks vs Habs/Kings: Trevor's or Quinn's

Devils vs Canucks/Ducks: Quinn's or Trevor's

Devils vs. Habs/Kings: Jack and Luke play rock, paper, scissors

Habs vs Kings: Alex and Cole play iMessage games

Panthers vs Anyone: Matty and Spencer play rock, paper, scissors when Spencer is playing. Otherwise, she wears Matty's (except for Canucks and Ducks)

Anyone vs Stars: Jason Robertson's (Robo)

Trevor

Nicknames: Z-Baby, Sweet Boy

He had a crush on Sissy since the moment her saw her

First Date: March 16, 2018 (Junior Year)

They also say their first real kiss was that day, since the other two were practically forced by their friends

Officially Dating: March 22, 2018

First time they said I love you: July 18, 2018

Engagement Date: April 14, 2023

They'll cuddle in any way possible (post on gen. masterlist)

Sissy will "train" with him. And by train I mean she's more like his personal cheerleader, but she'll do some things with him on a lower level

Big PDA couple

They'll sleep anywhere when they're drunk. Counters, tables, closets, horizontally on the bed, anywhere. It phases no one anymore

Sissy will take any and all of his clothes, so all of their clothes are mixed together in their closet. She'll steal clothes from anybody, so sometimes he's accidentally put on someone else's hoodie with their perspective team on it

There's a tradition on his birthday where everyone (that can be there) has a sleepover in the living room. They make a giant fort and watch movies and it's pure chaos

They have matching tattoos of otters on their hands so that when they hold hands, it looks like the otters are

They call each other sweet girl and sweet boy

He kisses her to wake her up. She calls it "Disney Princess style"

Leo is their first and only adopted son

More headcanons are listed on the general masterlist!

Quinn

Nicknames: Quinny Baby, Quinny, Huggy, Quinnjamin

He's not only her big brother, but he's also Sissy's best friend in the entire world

They have a Best Friend Contract

There is a rule that everyone knows that they do not let go of each other until they're both ready. No one else is allowed to touch her, and no one can take her away from him. Not even Trevor

Her going under shirts started with him (blurb: here)

Her and Quinn's son is Cole McWard! (blurb: here)

Trevor asked him for permission before he asked Sissy out. He's officiating their wedding, so it's like it has come full circle. (Fic: here)

She cries every time he leaves, especially after games when she barely gets to see him

He is a professional "Sissy catcher" because she will stand on surfaces that are not meant for standing on

He's the one that bought her Robo jersey

She gave him a "Best Big Brother In The Universe" trophy when they were kids and he still has it

He has a list of random things Sissy says when she's lovey clingy drunk

They officially became best friends when she was in 4th grade

Before Trevor, she had a boyfriend in freshman year. The breakup was hard for her because it was her first one, so Quinn drove down from UMich to be with her for a couple of days

She’ll call him anything under the sun, but she often uses Quintin when she’s upset or in pain (sometimes randomly). She used it a lot in middle school

Jack

Nicknames: Jacky Boy, Soulmate, Howdy Rowdy, Twin

She met everyone through him. They were in kindergarten together and were thrilled to live near each other

They have the same birthday (hence twins)

Jack often jokes he's older than her because he was born 4 hours and 36 minutes before her

They tend to make bets. Everyone had an "intervention" to stop them and limit to Ducks vs Canucks games, but they do not listen

They spontaneously went to Vegas in the peak of the bets starting. Only Trevor knew.

They have a special connection. They know what the other is saying with just a look. They call it "Hugheslepathy"

Sons: Luke and Ethan (He's her first officially adopted son)

Luke is a son because he accidentally called Sissy mom during the one month her and Jack dated (they decided it was too weird and broke up) (it was before the move)

She gives him a painted puck every year on their birthday, and he gives her a charm for her charm bracelet. When he knows it's full, he gets her a new one. (Full imagine: Sweet Sixteen)

She's changing her middle name to Rowden after her and Trevor get married to match him

They will wrestle each other, but he's always careful to make sure she doesn't hit her head on anything with how clumsy she is

They are THE unhinged duo

Sissy cried and slept in Jack's bed for weeks after Quinn left for USNTDP

Luke

Nicknames: Lukey Moosey, Moose, her son

He was the one that first called her Sissy

She's very protective of him and always feels the need to stay strong around him. When they were younger, she'd hold it together if she was upset or hurt in front of him. She also did it in the hospital after the car crash.

Just like with Quinn, if he needs her physical touch, she doesn't let go until he's ready. It's just a rarity.

Cute childhood Luke story in his Debut post!

Luke walked in on Sissy and Trevor making out during the spring break they first got together. He had a talk with Trevor alone warning him not to hurt his sister, despite him being so young at the time

Jamie

Nicknames: Jamie Baby, Ex Husband

Him and Sissy are very close and very supportive of each other

When he got hurt, she left the stands to be with him. She stayed home from games while with him to take care of him when it was the roughest

They used to be "husband and wife" and she calls him her favorite ex-husband

They had silicone rings and everything

They used to joke that Trevor was their kid (he hated it) until they got engaged

It took him a while to fully warm up to her because he's so quiet, but they easily became as close as she is to the other guys when he did

When Sissy and Trevor fall asleep on the couch, he'll carry her up to bed and then wake up Trevor so he can go to bed himself

When he learned why she goes under people's shirts, she made sure to tell her that it was okay for her to do it to him

He sat on the floor and held her hand while she did an online interview to work an important event because she was anxious about it

It was her idea for Jamie to move in with her and Trevor

Cole

Nicknames: Coley Woley

Known as Best Friend Number Two (fic: here)

She'll call him Best Friend Number One to mess with Quinn sometimes

Sissy's man of honor for the wedding

Has a once a month pass to call her Sissy

They've kissed, but it was more of as a joke. Full story on the Engagement post

Sissy, Cole, and Alex have a yearly "Best Friend's Weekend" with no boyfriends/girlfriends or brothers. It started in high school

In high school, Sissy would often go to Cole and Alex's room to smoke, vent, etc

Him and Alex 100% knew Sissy liked Trevor before she really knew herself

Sissy is the nicest to him at all times. He hardly gets the aggressive but loving teasing and belittling (also out of love)

Just she like was there for Jamie, she flew out to see Cole and help out after his surgery in the 22-23 season

Alex

Nicknames: Turc, Turcs, Lexi

Her main smoking partner after high school (especially since he lives so close)

He stole her bong and will not give it back

Sissy, Alex, and Cole have weekly movie nights where they facetime and use watch parties

Once when she fell asleep on him, Quinn threatened him to not move even though he had to pee until Alex was "about to pee on her"

He calls her Girly Hughes

Matthew Tkachuk

Nicknames: My Rat, Matty Ratty, Matty, Rathew (rare)

Sissy had the biggest crush on him in middle and high school and talked about him all of the time

She'll often joke to Trevor that she'll him for Matty when he's on her nerves (lovingly)

She begged Quinn to invite him to her sixteenth birthday party and she got so excited she fell over the couch (fic: here)

He calls her Little Mouse (occasionally sissy)

They have adopted Mackie as their son! It happened when the team went to Universal Studios (Oct. 4, 2023) when Sissy flew out to them without telling anyone (again)

She facetimed him angry when she found out through twitter he played with a broken sternum (and also cried. she's a crier)

She flew out there after and yelled at Brady in person

Spencer Knight

Note: he has not been in the series until the summer before and preseason of 23-24

Nickname: Spency

He had a big part in the egging on for Trevor and Sissy to have their first kiss at a party (full story: Knight in Shining Armor)

He has Sissy pass, and it's not limited. There's not really an explanation for it, but he wasn't as close in the group like the others, so she let him as a way for them to be closer

She was THRILLED when he got drafted to the Panthers, and called him when Matty got traded saying that he was going to love "Her Rat"

She flew to Boston without telling anyone for his first game during Trevor’s rookie year. That’s what started her thing of randomly going to see someone without telling anybody

Hughes Childhood/HS Things

When Quinn first went to USNTDP, they all would have facetime sleepovers. Quinn built his own fort in his dorm, and Jack, Luke, and Sissy built their own. This is still done today, but anyone can be involved

Forts are a big thing for them. They built a fort at any given opportunity (and still do)

They have a yearly "Brothers Weekend" with Sissy where it's just them four

Quinn walked her to class in elementary school. He always made sure her hair was how she wanted before he left to his own class

He gave her hoodie when he left while she was in middle school so he was still "walking her to class"

There's a yearly twister game at the Lake House every summer and has been since they first started spending summers together

"Hugheslepathy" isn't just for Jack and Sissy, theirs is just the strongest. They can all practically read each other's minds

Quinn officiated a wedding between Sissy and a poster of Finnick Odair. Everyone was forced to attend. Luke was the flower boy.

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more will be added as the series develops!

#penalty box series #trevor zegras #quinn hughes #penalty box series: asks #penalty box series: blurbs

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lookingforwisdom · 3 months

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Travel Advice for My Teen-aged Daughter Who Has Asked to Go on Spring Break / David Jibson

This poem was featured at a fall meeting of the Poetry Society of Michigan. It was a response to a prompt from Elizabeth Kerlikowske, then president of the organization. “Write a poem giving someone advice. It could be an extended metaphor. And fun/clever/don’t even think of rhyming.”

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#David Jibson #Poem #Poetry #Poetry Society of Michigan

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manwalksintobar · 1 year

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A Poem for Painters // John Wieners

Our age bereft of nobility

How can our faces show it?

I look for love.

My lips stand out

dry and cracked with want

of it.

Oh it is well.

My poem shall show the need for it.

Again we go driven by forces

we have no control over. Only

in the poem

comes an image that we rule

the line by the pen

in the painter’s hand one foot

away from me.

Drawing the face

and its torture.

That is why no one dares tackle it.

Held as they are in the hands

of forces they

cannot understand.

That despair

is on my face and shall show

in the fine lines of any man.

I had love once in the palm of my hand.

See the lines there.

How we played

its game, are playing now

in the bounds of white and heartless fields.

Fall down on my head, love,

drench my flesh in the streams

of fine sprays. Like

French perfume

so that I light up as

mountain glorys

and I am showered by the scent

of the finished line.

No circles

but that two parallels do cross

And carry our souls and bodies

together as the planets,

Showing light on the surface

of our skin, knowing

that so much of it flows through

the veins underneath.

Our cheeks puffed with it.

The pockets full.

Pushed on by the incompletion

of what goes before me

I hesitate before this paper

scratching for the right words.

Paul Klee scratched for seven years

on smoked glass, to develop

his line, LaVigne says, look

at his face! he who has spent

all night drawing mine.

The sun also

rises on the rooftops, beginning

w/ violet. I begin in blue

knowing why we are cool.

My middle name is Joseph and I

walk beside an ass on the way to what

Bethlehem, where a new babe is born.

Not the second hand of Yeats but

first prints on a cloudy windowpane.

America, you boil over

The cauldron scalds.

Flesh is scarred.

Eyes shot.

The street aswarm with

vipers and heavy armed bandits.

There are bandages on the wounds

but blood flows unabated. The bath—

rooms are full. Oh stop up

the drains.

We are run over.

Let me ramble here.

yet stay within my own yardlines.

I go out of bounds

without defense,

oh attack.

At last the game is over

and the line lengthens.

Let us stay with what we know.

That love is my strength, that

I am overpowered by it:

desire

that too

is on the face: gone stale.

When green was the bed my love

and I laid down upon.

Such it is, heart’s complaint,

You hear upon a day in June.

And I see no end in view

when summer goes, as it will,

upon the roads, like singing

companions across the land.

Go with it man, if you must,

but leave us markers on your way.

South of Mission, Seattle,

over the Sierra Mountains,

the Middle West and Michigan,

moving east again, easy

coming into Chicago and

the cattle country, calling

to each other over canyons,

careful not to be caught

at night, they are still out,

the destroyers, and down

into the South, familiar land,

lush places, blue mountains

of Carolina, into Black Mountain

and you can sleep out, or

straight across into States

I cannot think of their names.

This nation is so large, like

our hands, our love it lives

with no lover, looking only

for the beloved, back home

into the heart, New York,

New England, Vermont green

mountains, and Massachusetts

my city, Boston and the sea.

Again to smell what this calm

ocean cannot tell us. The seasons.

Only the heart remembers

and records in words

of works

we lay down for those men

who can come to them.

At last. I come to the last defense.

My poems contain no

wilde beestes, no

lady of the lake music

of the spheres, or organ chants,

yet by these lines

I betray what little given me.

One needs no defense.

Only the score of a man’s

struggle to stay with

what is his own, what

lies within him to do.

Without which is nothing,

for him or those who hear him

And I come to this,

knowing the waste, leaving

the rest up to love

and its twisted faces

my hands claw out at

only to draw back from the

blood already running there.

Oh come back, whatever heart

you have left. It is my life

you save. The poem is done.

6.18.58

#poetry #John Wieners #love #heart #painters #painting #art #Paul Klee #queer poetry #poems of praise #American poetry #despair #America #1958

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quicksiluers · 2 years

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Philip Henry Sheridan, born March 6th, 1831, was once described by Abraham Lincoln as “A brown, chunky little chap, with a long body, short legs, not enough neck to hang him, and such long arms that if his ankles itch he can scratch them without stooping.” Still, “Little Phil” rose to tremendous power and fame before his untimely death of a heart attack at age 57.

He is most famous for his destruction of the Shenandoah Valley in 1864, called “The Burning” by its residents. He was also the subject of an extremely popular poem entitled “Sheridan’s Ride”, in which he (and his famous horse, Rienzi) save the day by arriving just in time for the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Like Patrick Cleburne, Sheridan rose very quickly in rank. In the fall of 1861, Sheridan was a staff officer for Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck. He later became quartermaster general in the Army of Southwest Missouri. With the help of influential friends he was appointed Colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry in May, 1862. His first battle, Booneville, MS, impressed Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans so much that he himself was promoted to Brigadier General. After Stones River he was promoted to Major General.

Sheridan’s men were part of the forces which captured Missionary Ridge (near Chattanooga) in 1863. When Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to General-in-Chief of the Union armies, he made Sheridan the commander of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps. This moved him from the Western Theater to the Eastern Theater of operations. At first, Sheridan’s Corps was used for reconnaissance. His men were sent on a strategic raiding mission toward Richmond in May 1864. Then he fought with mixed success in Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign.

During the Civil War, Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley was a vital resource to the Confederacy. Not only did it serve as the Confederate “breadbasket”, it was an important transportation route. The region had witnessed two large-scale campaigns already when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant decided to visit the Valley once again in 1864. He sent Philip Sheridan on a mission to make the Shenandoah Valley a “barren waste”.

In September, Sheridan defeated Jubal Early’s smaller force at Third Winchester, and again at Fisher’s Hill. Then he began “The Burning” – destroying barns, mills, railroads, factories – destroying resources for which the Confederacy had a dire need. He made over 400 square miles of the Valley uninhabitable. The Burning” foreshadowed William Tecumseh Sherman’s “March to the Sea”: another campaign to deny resources to the Confederacy as well as bring the war home to its civilians.

In October, however, Jubal Early caught Sheridan off guard. Early launched a surprise attack at Cedar Creek on the 19th. Sheridan, however, was ten miles away in Winchester, Virginia. Upon hearing the sound of artillery fire, Sheridan raced to rejoin his forces. He arrived just in time to rally his troops. Early’s men, however, were suffering from hunger and began to loot the abandoned Union camps. The actions of Sheridan (and Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright) stopped the Union retreat and dealt a severe blow to Early’s army.

For his actions at Cedar Creek, Sheridan was promoted to Major General in the regular army. He also received a letter of gratitude from President Abraham Lincoln. The general took great pleasure in Thomas Buchanan Read’s poem, “Sheridan’s Ride” – so much so that he renamed his horse “Winchester”. The Union victories in the Shenandoah Valley came just in time for Abraham Lincoln and helped the Republicans defeat Democratic candidate George B. McClellan in the election of 1864.

During the spring of 1865, Sheridan pursued Lee’s army with dogged determination. He trapped Early’s army in March. In April, Gen. Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg when Sheridan cut off his lines of support at Five Forks. And, at Sayler’s Creek, he captured almost one quarter of Lee’s army. Finally at Appomattox, Lee was forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia when Sheridan’s forces blocked Lee’s escape route.

At war’s end, Phil Sheridan was a hero to many Northerners. Gen. Grant held him in the highest esteem. Still, Sheridan was not without his faults. He had pushed Grant’s orders to the limit. He also removed Gettysburg hero Gouverneur Warren from command. It was later ruled that Warren’s removal was unwarranted and unjustified.

During Reconstruction, Sheridan was appointed to be the military governor of Texas and Louisiana (the Fifth Military District). Because of the severity of his administration there, President Andrew Johnson declared that Sheridan was a tyrant and had him removed. In 1867, Ulysses S. Grant charged Sheridan with pacifying the Great Plains, where warfare with Native Americans was wreaking havoc. In an effort to force the Plains people onto reservations, Sheridan used the same tactics he used in the Shenandoah Valley: he attacked several tribes in their winter quarters, and he promoted the widespread slaughter of American bison, their primary source of food.

In 1871, the general oversaw military relief efforts during the Great Chicago Fire. He became the Commanding General of the United States Army on November 1, 1883, and on June 1, 1888, he was promoted to General of the Army of the United States – the same rank achieved by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sheridan is also largely responsible for the establishment of Yellowstone National Park – saving it from being sold to developers.

On August 5th, 1888, Sheridan died after a series of massive heart attacks. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

#philip sheridan #philip h sheridan #american civil war #history #i discovered in my reading on thing with the civil war...that i like to read about loud assholes lol #and sheridan isssss for sure one of them #but hey...i can join him in the 'don't like gov. warren club'#that's a whole other topic #but i will also say! that sheridan has a lot of good photos #and i always forget that when he went east he had a beard for a bit lol

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fateofthesammy · 11 months

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Dreams

this is soley based off of ZLB’s poem this road I know. I just couldn’t get this idea out of my head so here it is.

As Jake lays in bed on that rainy night, he reminisces on the old times, the time before you were gone. Gone too soon he thinks to himself, as he tries to drift off to sleep, he tosses and turns until his body just shuts down. Like many nights before, this one was no different, two hours after going to sleep he shoots up. It must’ve been a nightmare, but he can’t remember exactly what about, but he remembers you being there, and he remembers it being a nightmare for sure. Jake lays there starring at the ceiling. Somethings got to give, I’m sleep deprived, and it’s been years, she gone. he thinks to himself. As the rain beings to fall harder, his eyes grow heavier, sleep came more easily this time.

He dreams a dream he’ll never forget. There was a flash, it was more like a vision than anything, it felt so real. He’s on this road driving he can hear the road underneath him and he can feel it too. He can’t tell where he is but it a place so spine chillingly familiar, he knows exactly where he is. It really dark and the car is warm heated seats and all, but he can still feel how cold the night is, as the snows falling from the clouded Michigan skies.

He can’t remember where this road leads, but he knows exactly where it ends. So, he keeps driving, but all he can see for the longest time is his headlight, it seems like an eternity. Everything seems desolate and empty and nothing and hopeless.

He’s lost but he knows where he’s going, safe, and warm, and driving. A small light starts to appear a dim one grown brighter and bigger and stronger. The closer he gets the more he can see. He can make out a house with lights across it, and a porch and car, with some frosted windshields that haven’t been touched for hours.

He hears a song, it’s extremely faint and he can’t think of the name, but he knows every word. He gets out of the car feeling his feet first, and it’s cold and they’re crunching in the snow. Flakes littering his hair. The wind takes his breath away.

He walks up to this door and knocks even though he feels so at home that he doesn’t have to, and he doesn’t know where he is, but he knows exactly where he is. Then the crack of light widens on the porch under him as the door opens. And this long-haired girl with the brightest smile. He doesn’t know who she is, but he knows her so well, and behind her the warmest homiest home he’s ever seen, it’s orange and comfortable there’s a fire burning in the fireplace.

“Where have you been, I’ve been waiting on you all night, I’ve missed you.” She says through the kindest most genuine smirk he’d seen in so long. Then she tapers off the sentence with the peaceful sound that a lady makes.

She grabs him by the arm and softly pulls him into the dining room. And there’s people and they’re happy and they’re content for once, and he can’t make out who they are, but they know exactly who they are. We’re all standing and laughing at a joke he fears he’ll never hear again. And he still doesn’t know where he is, but he feels so at home, and he knows exactly where he is.

He retires out to the living room sitting on the couch in front of the burning fireplace, and she joins him. No words are said and its content, no awkwardness to be found but so many unanswered questions. He sighs and so does she. Then she tucks her head between his collar, between his collar and his jaw, and there no weight at all, just happiness, the kind he hasn’t felt in years.

They look up at each other and get lost. There so many unsaid words, and unanswered questions, and pining and leaning and NOPE. She starts to fade, everyone starts to fade all he can hear is laughter, all he sees flashing by him in a blink is grins. He’s left standing in front of the fireplace his arms open from a spot she once filled. With the leaving sentence being “it’s okay to not be okay, but it’s also okay to let go, rockstar.” He knows now who she was, the girl carrying the brightest smile from dreams never dreamed. And as he’s left standing there alone, he doesn’t know where he is, but he knows exactly where he is.

As jake wakes the next morning, he feels free, like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, all his questions were answered. “it’s okay to not be okay but it’s okay to let go, rockstar.” So, he does. Now she remains a happy memory.

#greta van fic #jakekiszka #jake gvf #jake kiszka x reader #gretavanfleet #joshkiszka #josh gvf #danny wagner #danny gvf #sam kiszka #sammy kiszka #Sammy gvf #greta van fluff

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rustbeltjessie · 1 year

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Rust Belt Jessie’s NaPoWriMo 2023 Prompts: #1

New Seasons

I recently read an article about how the seasons are shifting due to climate change. Some seasons last longer, others are now shorter; therefore they don’t start or end when we expect them to, based on the calendar and the solstices and equinoxes. I’ve noticed this for years, and having it confirmed is both reassuring (I’m not imagining it!) and disturbing (for obvious reasons). That’s one way you could approach this prompt: what are the new, longer summers like? The winters that start later and are more erratic, but still last too far into the spring months? Get as dark and apocalyptic as you like. (Think of fire season on the west coast of the U.S. This shouldn’t exist, and is every bit as terrifying as it sounds.) Or sad, nostalgic—what do you miss about the way the seasons used to be? Or get weird and surrealistic—after all, living through these times is often weird and surreal. (I mean, it’s bizarre when it’s April and one day there’s a blizzard and the next day it’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit.) Or get hopeful, even utopic—what beautiful possibilities could arise from these new/changed seasons? Or, of course, you could combine any or all of those moods and modes.

Another way you can approach this prompt, which has less to do with climate change, is to think about micro-seasons, which exist in between—or within—other seasons; or, what seasons are like in a micro-climate as opposed to the larger climates which surround it.

Here in the Upper Midwest, where I’ve spent 43.90243902439025% of my life (I did the math), we’ve long had a micro-season people call “fool’s spring.” It’s that time in late February/early March, when it gets into the upper 40s or low 50s (I know that doesn’t sound that warm, but when you’ve spent months at freezing or below, it’s fucking warm, okay?), and we all go crazy and wear light jackets instead of down parkas and we sit out on our porches drinkin’ beers and we’re like heck yah, it’s spring! And we know it won’t last, but we always hope it will, and sure enough, our springdreams are blasted away by another blizzard and then a plummet into the teens.

Or maybe you live in a micro-climate. When I lived in the Bay Area, I remember summer being so weird in Frisco. (I know San Franciscans hate when people call it that. I’m taking a bit of poetic license and doing it anyway.) I lived in Oakland, and it would be hella hot and dry there, and then I’d take BART over into the West Bay—and it would be cold and damp as shit in Frisco. There’s actually a similar phenomenon where I live now; the tourism slogan for Racine used to be cooler on the lake. In the spring and summer, it can be anywhere from 5-20 degrees warmer inland than it is near Lake Michigan.

Or take Kurt Vonnegut’s assertion that in the northern parts of the United States, there are six seasons rather than four: Winter, Unlocking, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Locking.

Or, you know, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “Lousy Smarch weather.”

Whichever approach(es) you choose for this prompt, consider naming your new season(s), a la “Unlocking” or “Smarch” (but with your own twist, and in your own words, of course.)

Recommended reading:

Seasonality and Climate Change (via the EPA—or just web search “shifting seasons climate change;” there are a lot of results)

My therapist called it “climate despair” (by KB Brookins)

10 Poems About Climate Change to Read Right Now

Seasonal Poems

#napowrimo #glopowrimo #napowrimo 2023 #writing prompts #poetry #climate change #seasons #rust belt jessie #jessie lynn mcmains #i um…may have gone a little crazy this year #and put together an ebook of prompts/exercises for the month #the whole thing will be available (for free!) april 3 #but it’s not quite finished #and since i’m a couple days late #i wanted to get the first two prompts up now #also:#the words above the read more are the broad/general prompt #below the cut is my extended thoughts/ideas/recommended reading

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evannanders-blog · 4 months

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I'm beyond thrilled to have my poem "A Barista Training Manual for Essential Workers" in the #whywewrite fall issue of Michigan Quarterly Review.

This poem is dedicated to the baristas who sailed with me through holidays, doubles, clopens, birthdays, and brew room mid-shift drinks.

There are too many people to list, but you're all here with me, working the line. All the beautiful ghosts are here. Thank you. ❤️❤️

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sanjeetkv · 2 years

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Pure Michigan Fall

Pure Michigan Fall In winter Wonderland Fall Found Orange, yellow and Red amazing Here there color color all around The hillside of Michigan is blazing Sky witnessing gorgeous Ground In winter Wonderland Fall Found Just after cold weather this Week Upper Peninsula passing the peak Maple, Aspen and oak gowned Near lake, over hills and on trail In winter Wonderland Fall Found Michigan is still…

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#Best Fall color in Michigan #Best way to enjoy fall in Michigan #Fall color Michigan #Fall in Michigan #fall poetry #Michigan fall #Nature #poem about Michigan #Poem about Michigan Fall #PureMichigan

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chardaearchive · 10 months

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The Soul of the Earth by Chardae Hilson

Rain drops fall like petals of moonstone,

their cyclindrical shape cannot help but to combust,

losing all form at its meeting with the windows sill.

The trip down blurred glass is almost whimsical,

melancholy in its melding nature.

To dissemble and form again into something bigger, more whole, and entirely more mobile,

again, and again, and again.

The fluidity of water is awe inspiring,

the constant cycle of falling and moving,

becoming undone just to become done again,

It is a marvel to know

that this same water touched the skin and the lives of those from worlds before.

To be touched by water is to be touched by God

and to experience the soul of the Earth.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This poem was created after a particularly meaningful day sitting on the rocks and staring into the depths of lake Michigan. As always, this content is only for the purpose of your reading enjoyment as well as the portrayal of my skill as a writer. Do not reproduce or repurpose under any circumstances.

Best,

Char

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talbottoabbott · 1 year

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Mini-Research Paper - Summer Wagner

Summer Wagner is a photographer from Midwest America whose vivid and colorful photographs depict dream-like, ethereal, and fantastical scenes. Her two most recent projects, “The In-Between” and “The Parody of the Tangled Thread,” share many similarities, especially in style and technique. For example, Wagner shot both on a digital camera. Based on what she has commented about her photos on social media, she seems to have done most of her edits in Lightroom. In addition, most of her photographs have similar color palettes, dominated by either extremely cool tones or warm ones. Although her pictures might appear heavily edited using digital software, Wagner maintains that she enjoys getting as much as possible in camera instead of using digital painting.

“The In-Between,” captured in the summer and early fall of 2021, is the first publicly available project I could find from Wagner. Each photograph represents an in-between of two different elements. According to Wagner, the collection contemplates “humanness, spirituality and the delicate task of balancing life in a web of intricate dialectics.” A recurring motif in this collection is people looking at their phones.

An example is the photograph titled “Finding Affection Where I Can,” shot in September 2021, which depicts Wagner curled up in a laundry machine using her phone. What I find interesting about this motif of cellphones is that it perfectly captures a dialectic that capitalism and society have enabled, a reality in which people are almost always together and connected with each other because of advances in communication technology yet are fundamentally alone and disconnected from the people and places around them. There are also photographs in the collection that are impressive in their ability to capture the aforementioned “humanness” and depict human emotion and experience.

For example, one of my favorite images in the collection, titled “What Happened,” depicts the state of “in-between reality and dream.” There is a translucent person, an effect that Wagner might have achieved through long exposure, sitting down in a chair and situated in an environment that appears more definite than the person. With this photograph, Wagner expresses the universal yet difficult-to-describe feeling of waking up from a dream so intense and powerful that the dreamer cannot differentiate between the dream and reality. The forward-bent position of the subject also perfectly captures the grogginess of waking up from a deep nap and contributes to the image’s immersion and realism.

“The Parody of the Tangled Thread,” shot across 2021 and early 2022, is the most recent of Wagner’s collection. It is a visual poem about the notion that people experience reality in a fixed, linear manner and also all at once. Even on an individual level, it is a tangled thread of physical neurons and less tangible memories or concepts that come together to create one identity through which we experience the world. Memory is especially central to this collection since despite appearing to experience the world linearly, we continuously replay memories of happiness, embarrassment, or loss. The collection is also quite metatextual. Wagner mentions how cameras, since they are not tethered by a fixed experience of time, can show us different ways of perceiving time by capturing a specific moment, including the thoughts and feelings of the people in those pictures. In addition, long exposures capture long stretches of time in one photograph, showing us a passage of time that the fixed, linear experience does not encompass.

For example, her self-portrait titled “The Inner Bridge,” captured in the winter of 2021 along Lake Michigan, is a long exposure photograph depicting two Summer Wagners from different points in time reaching out to each other.

What the camera depicts in “The Inner Bridge” is not an event that could happen. However, Wagner contends that fantasy in art is often more true than the reality that humans experience through their senses.

An example she provides from the same collection is a photograph titled “Where We End And It Begins.” The photograph depicts three subjects lined up, staring into their phones, and their faces appear to be getting sucked into their phones. By representing phones are parasitic entities, “Where We End And It Begins” perfectly captures the experience of “doom-scrolling” and the feelings of sluggishness and guilt that come with it. The visual of their faces being pulled into the phones is also an apt illustration of the emptiness I have felt after a session of doom-scrolling. These are ideas and emotions that would have been much harder to represent realistically, and Wagner’s decision to choose a dream-like visual style allows her to be more true to the ideas that she wants to explore.

Conceptually, “The Parody of the Tangled Thread” was much more difficult to grasp, but once I started to understand Wagner’s intentions with this project, I felt more connected with it than I did “The In-Between.” It is impressive how greatly Wagner varies her subject matter and style while maintaining the cohesiveness of her work in style and the ideas she is exploring. For example, while the first project restricted itself to only natural environments and domestic spaces, Wagner’s second project adds environments such as a library, an auditorium, a classroom, etc. In addition, many subjects of the second project are engaged in action, contrasting the more resigned postures and positions of subjects in the first, and there is more variation in colors and tones. This variation in style and substance makes “The Parody of the Tangled Thread” a more enrapturing body of work than its predecessor.

- Bhargav Tata

Works Cited

@bugindreamland. “I am beyond excited to invite you to view my collection “The In-Between.” This is a special body of work created in the summer of 2021 contemplating humanness, spirituality and the delicate task of balancing life in a web of intricate dialectics.” Twitter, 11 Oct. 2021, 1:34 p.m., https://twitter.com/bugindreamland/status/1447616624836632580?s=20.

@bugindreamland. “Lol I Put the Tattoo There (It's a Tarot Reference That's Meaningful for the Piece) I Don't Use Filters or Photoshop to Create the Texture That's All in Camera but the Color Grade (in Lightroom) Is What Makes It Look Painterly..” Twitter, 7 Feb. 2023,12:13 p.m., https://twitter.com/bugindreamland/status/1623006819739217952?s=20.

@bugindreamland. “This is a photograph. It’s not edited in photoshop. It’s not a photograph w digital painting either, just a photo i took with candles in a swamp bc I love doing things the hard way for mo reason.” Twitter, 18 Oct. 2022, 5:21 p.m., https://twitter.com/bugindreamland/status/1582481973075120131?s=20.

@bugindreamland. “The Parody of a Tangled Thread: A Thread .” Twitter, 17 May 2022, 12:19 p.m., https://twitter.com/bugindreamland/status/1526598270180524032.

“Finding Affection Where I Can.” Foundation, Foundation, https://foundation.app/@summerwagner/foundation/96613.

“The Inner Bridge.” Foundation, Foundation, https://foundation.app/@summerwagner/pott/15.

“What Happened.” Foundation, Foundation, https://foundation.app/@summerwagner/foundation/96610.

“Where We End And Where It Begins.” Foundation, Foundation, https://foundation.app/@summerwagner/pott/9“The Parody of a Tangled Thread.” Foundation, Foundation, https://foundation.app/collection/pott.

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biglisbonnews · 1 year

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Hunting for “The Secret” Treasure Buried in Milwaukee A light snow is falling as Tom Klein leads the way into Milwaukee’s Plankinton Arcade building, a cavernous space with marble floors and a large skylight that first opened as a shopping plaza in 1916 and has recently been converted into apartments. Klein heads for a circle of four staircases that twist their way down to the building’s lower level. In the center of the stairwells is a statue of the building’s namesake, businessman John Plankinton, at the base of which is a fountain. Klein counts the stairs as he descends. Reaching the bottom, he turns to his partner, Molly Westenberger. “Molly, you got the book?” “Yeah,” she replies, unzipping a backpack and pulling out a well-worn copy of The Secret: A Treasure Hunt by author Byron Preiss. Published in 1982, The Secret features illustrations and poems that offer clues to 12 hidden treasures—ceramic “casques” with an enclosed key—buried in cities across North America. In exchange for a key, Preiss would give successful treasure hunters a precious jewel from a trove worth some $10,000 collectively. But Preiss made the puzzles too difficult. Since the book’s publication, only three treasures have been found in Chicago, Cleveland, and Boston. There will be no further clues from Preiss himself, who died in a car accident in 2005. One of the undiscovered casques is believed to be somewhere in Milwaukee—where, however, is a mystery. But Klein and Westenberger think they’ve finally solved the 41-year-old treasure hunt. Klein points to the clues in the painting associated with Milwaukee, which depicts a person in a blue cloak juggling a millstone, walking stick, and key: “Mill-walk-key,” Klein explains. Behind the juggler is a tower that is the same shape as the Milwaukee City Hall. “Cast into copper,” Klein says, pointing out a line in the poem. He pantomimes throwing a penny into Plankinton’s fountain, which has a smattering of coins at the bottom. Then he points to the stairwells. “23 times 4? 92,” Klein says, pointing again to the poem. “Ascend the 92 steps, after climbing the grand 200…the address here is 200 Grand Avenue.” Plankinton Arcade is between the 100 and 200 blocks of Wisconsin Avenue, formerly called Grand Avenue until 1926. But that’s only the beginning of Klein and Westenberger’s code-cracking as their next clue leads them back into snowy downtown. The pair have spent years searching for Milwaukee’s treasure. Klein, who often watches treasure hunting shows with his father, was first introduced to The Secret when the pair caught an episode of Expedition Unknown and were surprised to see host Josh Gates on the trail of a treasure right in their own backyard. Klein wasn’t impressed with Gates’s interpretation of the clues, which led his team to Lake Park, a 138-acre stretch of land on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. “I was like, absolutely not, he’s not even in the right park, what is he doing?” Klein says of his reaction. “Something else has to fit.” He assembled a team of “keyseekers,” (as devotees of the hunt are called) which included his dad, friends, and Westenberger, his partner of 14 years who shares his love of games and puzzles. Like many others, they had high hopes of entering that rare pantheon of those who have found The Secret’s buried treasure. “It does get its hooks in you: It’s hard to stop thinking about it,” says James Renner, a journalist from Akron, Ohio. Renner’s journey into The Secret started in 2004 when he saw a report about the two lawyers who found Cleveland’s treasure in the Greek Cultural Garden, about five miles from where Renner was working at the time. “I thought, someone should make a documentary about this,” says Renner. It took him about 10 years, but in 2014 Renner moved forward with filming (though the film still has not been released). He followed clues around the country and interviewed the Preiss family, the artists who worked on the book, and the fortunate few who found the treasures in Chicago and Cleveland. When Expedition Unknown decided to feature a search for The Secret's treasure, they brought Renner with them to Milwaukee. The most common interpretation of the poem’s clues bring keyseekers to Lake Park, and that’s where Renner led Gates back in 2017. Here, unlike Klein’s interpretation, it’s thought that “ascend the 92” refers to Lake Park’s 92 stairs on Lincoln Memorial Drive (“cast in copper” could refer to Lincoln’s visage on a penny). From there, clues possibly tie to the park’s North Point Lighthouse and end at the foot of a stone lion that decorates a nearby bridge. During Expedition Unknown, “I think we were right on the spot, but we got this torrential downpour and lightning storm that shut it down,” Renner says. What made the storm even more frustrating was that they lost a rare opportunity to legally dig for the treasure. “Unfortunately, I think they see it as an annoyance,” Renner says of Milwaukee’s Parks Department. Dig permits are expensive, rarely issued, and Renner says, “If you do find the casque, it’s with the understanding that it remains their property.” If you don’t get a permit, you can face a stiff fine or jail time. He points out that this is in sharp contrast with places like San Francisco, where a casque is believed to be buried in Golden Gate Park. A “Treasure Ranger” program from the San Francisco Parks Department allows you to sign up for a permit that gives you an hour of dig time overseen by a park staff member. “They understand how cool it is,” Renner says. “For some reason, Milwaukee doesn’t.” But dig permits haven’t deterred interest in Milwaukee’s treasure. There are over 1200 members of “The Secret (by Byron Preiss) Milwaukee” Facebook group, where theories are shared and clues are examined inside out and upside down. “Some people share everything, but there’s people holding stuff close to their chest. They want people to weigh in on [clues] to get better ideas if they don’t have it fully fleshed out,” says Westenberger. Using Post-it notes, Google Earth, and vintage maps, some have focused on Lake Park while others, like Klein, have come up with alternate locations. Some think it’s in the riverside Pere Marquette Park. Another claims it’s buried on the grounds of the historic Pabst Mansion. To get to these spots, their interpretations often take deep dives into American and Wisconsin history and make complicated leaps using math and picture analyses. Renner warns that overinterpretation is a mistake. “Try to keep it simple, because Byron wrote these for teenagers. I think Byron’s brain worked at a higher level than most of us and he made it harder than he expected it to be,” Renner says, noting that verses are often vague enough to apply to several locations. Take the first line of the Milwaukee poem. Klein interprets “view the three stories of Mitchell,” as referring to the Wisconsin Club, originally the Mitchell Mansion, home to three generations of the wealthy Mitchell family. But their name is also associated with Mitchell Park, home of three horticulture domes, as well as Mitchell Hall, a three-story building on the University of Wisconsin campus, Mitchell International Airport, and an entire Historic Mitchell Street neighborhood. Back on the trail, the snow has picked up as Klein and Westernberger follow the final clues into Red Arrow Park, a small square in downtown Milwaukee. The park’s centerpiece is now an ice-skating rink in front of a Starbucks where a dozen people glide in circles through the falling snow. Inside the Starbucks, Klein pulls out a laptop to show his clues—the red balls being juggled reference the park’s name, he says, and if you look at the woman’s forehead, her hair forms an arrow that matches the park’s logo. “On a proud, tall fifth,” Klein quotes from the poem as he points to a blueprint from when the park was first constructed, overlayed with a map of how the park currently looks, a redesign that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s. He points on the map to a row of trees that would have been in the park when Preiss wrote The Secret. Klein believes the treasure was buried by the fifth tree, which, depending on how the direction is interpreted, would be underneath where the Starbucks building currently is or on a side of the park that was lopped off and paved over to widen Kilbourn Avenue. If Klein is right, the treasure is crushed and sealed under concrete and asphalt. That might also be the case in other cities where landscapes have evolved. The other Secret cities are commonly agreed to be San Francisco, New York City, New Orleans, Roanoke, Charleston, St. Augustine, Houston, and Montreal. If the treasures are found, Preiss’s family members still dole out the precious jewels, referred to as “wonderstones” in the book, to anyone able to turn in one of the original casques. “The amount of time that has gone by is not something Byron considered when he did this adventure,” Renner says. “There’s a lot of things that point to a casque being buried in Battery park in Manhattan. And if it was there, it almost certainly would have been dug up and destroyed during construction [the park has undergone several renovations since 1982]. I think that’s happened to maybe half of them that are out there.” But Renner still thinks it’s possible a couple more casques will be found. As for Klein and Westenberger, their treasure hunting journey has concluded. The hunt stretched over a few years and took them to several Milwaukee parks. Looking back at their quest, Klein says he most enjoyed the time spent with his father. “My dad has been going through cancer for the last ten years, getting sicker. We went out together a bunch of times,” Klein says. “Instead of just watching treasure hunters on TV, he became one.” Though their hunt for Byron Preiss’s treasure has for now concluded, the pair still enjoy kicking back and watching Expedition Unknown. As for his puzzle solution, Klein says, “I’m confident enough that I’ve stopped looking for it.” He thinks for a second—there’s still some doubt in his mind. “But not confident enough to really argue about it.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-secret-byron-preiss-milwaukee

#Tea Krulos #Atlas Obscura

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brn1029 · 1 year

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Time for your Rock Report

Nita Strauss is returning to Alice Cooper's band for his 2023 tour, Cooper's management has disclosed. The Alice Cooper North American tour, with an all-new show dubbed "Too Close For Comfort," kicks off in late April in Michigan and continues through late September. The trek includes a handful of August stadium shows with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, followed by a co-headlining late summer "Freaks On Parade" tour with Rob Zombie. "She's Back!" Cooper said. "Nita asked for a leave of absence to work with someone else, something I always encourage my band members to do. I like them to challenge themselves and try new things. I'm thankful to my old friend Kane Roberts for stepping up and filling in for her, but she'll be back with us for the new tour that starts up in late April. It's going to be great to have her back. The top-rated guitarist had been with Cooper for several years until she departed to do a Fall 2022 tour with Demi Lovato.

Peter Gabriel has announced details of the long-awaited North American leg of "i/o - The Tour," a 2023 run across Europe and North America this spring and fall. Gabriel will perform in Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Fans should also stay tuned for future tour date announcements in Washington, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Denver, Austin, Dallas and Houston. "i/o - The Tour" will see Gabriel playing new material from his forthcoming album i/o, as well as delving into his catalogue of music.

Roger Waters recently shared a snippet of music from his re-recorded version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 1. Waters shared a 52-second clip on YouTube, showing him listening to the first verse of a reworked "Us and Them" in the studio. He also posted a lengthy description of the project, which does not feature his former bandmates. "We are now in the process of finishing the final mix. It's turned out really great and I'm excited for everyone to hear it. It's not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable," Waters said. "But it is a way for the 79-year-old man to look back across the intervening 50 years into the eyes of the 29-year-old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my father, 'We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us.'"

He added, "And also it is a way for me to honour a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of."

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dailyaudiobible · 2 years

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10/29/2022 DAB Transcript

Lamentations 1:1-2:22, Philemon 1:1-25, Psalms 101:1-8, Proverbs 26:20

Today is the 29th day of October, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you as we take the next step forward together all around the Global Campfire here. We have totally new territory to move into today, both in the old and the new Testaments. So, we have some ground cover. This is one of the rare days on our journey through the Scriptures where we come to brand-new books or letters in old and New Testament on the same day. So, as we move into the Old Testament portion of our reading today we will remember that we concluded the book of Jeremiah yesterday, which leads us now into the book of Lamentations

Introduction to Lamentations:

And to kind of get ourselves into the right mindset here let's just consider that whatever nation that we live in. Like one of the major cities…think about your capital city, a major city in the land that you live in. So, here in the United States there are a bunch of big cities that have millions of people in them. Think of anyone of them and think that it is destroyed. Like not some buildings, but like the city is destroyed and the survivors are fleeing and confused, and nobody knows what to do. Imagine that. But we can bring it more immediate and just consider wars that are occurring on the earth today and people whose homes have been destroyed and lives have been torn apart. And like we can see on the news what it looks like for blocks and blocks of a city to just be leveled. Think about the aftermath of that, the years on down the line and the way that what happened is processed through the eyes of a historian, but also processed through the eyes of the artist. Like I can remember when I was kid there was this song. I cannot remember how…I think we probably…in elementary school we studied it or something because it was like an oldie when I was a kid. But it was a song about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and that this was a boat, a big ship that sank in Lake Superior up in Michigan waters. And that was a tragedy, and the crew was lost, but as things reverberated into history, right? And there's this song and like the artist community speaks forth. And, so, there's this song that holds this whole story together of tragedy and loss. The book of Lamentations that we are moving into now is a book composed of five poems. And they’re sad abundance of lament. They’re lamenting over the fall and destruction of Jerusalem, a city, a city that was the icon of a people, a representative of the people and their identity, a capital city destroyed. And we have read about that destruction. In fact, even as we concluded the book of Jeremiah we’re reading about the destruction, the Babylonian invasion and the capture and destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the people into exile. And the more you think about it and put yourself in the position of the Jewish people then you realize just how deep of a thing this is. This isn’t the destruction of a suburb. This is the destruction of the capital city. This is the destruction of the Temple of the most-high God. The city is on fire. Everything seems gray and overcast because of the ash in the air. Dead bodies are strewn everywhere. Blood is on the walls and running down the streets. In the Hebrew. this book Lamentations is called Icah. And this word means how. Like, how? How could this happen? Through the other scriptures that we read we know that it happened, and we know how it happened. And technically speaking Babylonian's finally broke through the wall of Jerusalem and flooded into the city and destroyed it. And there is archaeological evidence of the conquest of the Babylonians that can be found in Jerusalem still until today. How the people got into this position spiritually, how this could happen is so much of what we’ve read in the prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah warned people for decades that this…that this was coming, that impending doom would eventually arrive if they didn't turn from their wickedness. And now as we turn the page out of Jeremiah and into Lamentations it happened. The prophecies came true. It happened. Though, how could this happen. Like, how do you put words to that? The book of limitations doesn't tell us who wrote the book of Lamentations, at least inside the text. The tradition is that Jeremiah wrote Lamentations being known as the weeping prophet, which is one of the reasons why Lamentations follows Jeremiah. But like so many things there's no way to know for sure. There’s just compiling of evidence and gathering it together and making the best hypothesis. One thing that most scholars agree on, though, is that whoever did write Lamentations was probably an eyewitness to the destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem. In history this happen in 586 BC. The Babylonians invaded Judah and eventually conquered and completely leveled the city of Jerusalem. And, so, Lamentations was probably written pretty quickly after during that reverberation as things go out into history. And the historians look at things and try to figure out how and what happened when the artists use metaphor to describe emotions that just can't be put into words. In Jewish culture today on the ninth day of Ov Lamentations is read and it's read on a day of fasting that commemorates the fall of Jerusalem. And reading each of the poems in the book of Lamentations gives this backdrop. Not only to look back at…at like the history of a people, but also to offer personal reflection and offer words giving language to loss and lament. And this is a topic. Like being sad, lamenting, embracing the feeling of it. That’s not something that we really are programmed to do. In fact, it's what we’re programmed to avoid. It's not just in Christian culture. It's in culture in general. Let's avoid what's hard and exalts what is easy, and good and pleasurable. Lamenting isn’t easy. It's just that grief touches everybody. Like, eventually grief touches us and hurts and it's painful and it's hard to put into words and it feels disorienting and like a slog, but also if we've gone through grief we know that kind of purges us as well. It simplifies things. It reminds us of what actually is important. I kind of washes away the superficial, it kind of gets us down to the rock, the bedrock of our life and it is intensely painful, but it also is freeing, because when we have reached the depths of our sadness eventually, we begin to realize there is hope for the future. And lamenting his language to that suffering. And putting words to something that is hard to put into words helps us to release, to begin to open our hands and to begin to think about newness of life even in the midst of the pain. And, so, that is the territory that we are heading into as we move into the book of Lamentations. And, so, we can open ourselves to it. This is where the Bible is leading us. This is where we are now. And although these kinds of emotions are not the kinds of emotions we dwell or definitely seek out, they come to us. And when we don't try to deflect or disassociate, when we try to allow them to come, allow them to be what they are, invite God into what we’re feeling, allow things like the book of Lamentations to give language to what we’re feeling then we begin to realize that as painful as it may be, we are moving forward, new life will come. And, so, with that we begin. Lamentations, chapters 1 and 2.

Introduction to Philemon:

Okay. So, we have talked about and begun the book of Lamentations but we also have new territory in the New Testament to enter today. This will be the final letter of the apostle Paul. And, so, at this point, we will leave the apostle Paul and move forward in the New Testament, but we’ve have been traveling with Paul since we finished the book of Acts. So, for a while now. This final letter of the apostle Paul is called Philemon and we’re gonna read…well…it's a letter. First of all, it's a letter and we’ll read the whole letter today, which means we have some new territory to move into in the New Testament tomorrow, but Philemon is a short personal letter to a person named Philemon who was a leader in the church at Colossae. Based on what's in the letter, it's likely that Philemon was one of the more wealthy and influential people in the church at Colossae. In the letter we read of a congregation that meets in his house. Philemon had a servant and the servant's name was Onesimus and Onesimus ran away from Philemon, probably stealing from Philemon on his way out. That would've been an offense very severely punishable, maybe even by death. And Onesimus likely fled to Rome. He ended up in Rome but he likely fled to Rome. That's a populous city full of culture and all kinds of people coming in and all kinds of people going out. And, so, that would've been a good place to disappear. But instead of disappearing Onesimus ran into the apostle Paul who was under house arrest awaiting his trial. And, so, as things turned out Onesimus the runaway slave comes into contact with the apostle Paul and under Paul's instruction becomes a follower of Jesus and then Onesimus served Paul and his needs while he was in Rome. And, so, then sometime later Paul wrote a letter to the church and Colossae, right? Colossians as we know it. And the intention was to send Tychicus on the journey to hand deliver the letter to the church at Colossae. And as he wrote Colossians he also writes this personal note to Philemon and sends Onesimus back with Tychicus back to Colossae and Onesimus back to his master, Philemon, which would've been a great step of faith for the runaway Onesimus because that could be life or death. But under Paul's leadership Onesimus takes this step of faith and leaves his life in God's hands and does the right thing. And, so, Paul writes a brief letter to Philemon that packs a punch because it shows us the importance of not only forgiveness but also shows that no matter what kind of authority, we have over somebody else, if they’re a believer in the Lord, then we are to treat them as a brother or sister. And this final letter of the apostle Paul in the New Testament also shows us that indeed God does work all things together for those who love Him. And, so, we begin and will read in its entirety Philemon.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. And we have moved in and even through brand-new territory today. And, so, as we engage with the book of Lamentations, we invite Your Holy Spirit. It is not easy to face the pain that we suffer inside emotionally. It’s hard to give it language. It's something that we try to avoid. But as the Scriptures have led us into this territory, we embrace this territory and invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us. Lead us into wounds that we still carry with us. We invite You into those places and ask for Your healing there. And as we have just moved through the final letter of the apostle Paul, we not only take to heart what Philemon has to teach us but we also take the heart that we were moving forward and away from the voice of the apostle Paul. And, so, we give it the honor that it is due. We spent a lot of weeks together with Paul, but we also look forward to all that You have yet to teach us through the Scriptures. And, so, come Holy Spirit, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that's home base, that is the website, it's where you find out what's going on around here. You can also do that with the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can download free from whatever app store is associated with your smart device, whether that be tablet or phone. And, so, check that out.

And what is going on around here is that we are mere days away from the release of a brand-new resource for the community. We’ve been talking about it for I guess a week and a half. It’s called Sleep, a contemplative journey. And it is exactly that. It's kinda self-explanatory. That's what it's for, is for providing space, an atmosphere of rest, an atmosphere that will not only lull us into calm and sleep and rest, but also kind of just play over us as we rest and dream. And, so, looking forward to…to this…to this very much. It was created out of necessity. It was created out my own need for rest and space for that. And it's interesting, when we create spaces for things then we go into that space we kind of know what it's for. And, so, creating space for sleep and rest was the intention here. And I am very much looking forward to that being released. You can preorder it now wherever it is that you get your music. I have mentioned…and it's not like a preference…well I guess it is kind of a preference thing, but I’m not saying like one is…one distribution outlet is better than another. Like if you’re Spotify user or Amazon music or whatever, it's everywhere. And there are a bunch of different distributors around the world as well. And I don't even know all their names. I use iTunes. I use Apple music. And, so, you would go to the iTunes store and just search for Sleep, a contemplative journey or my name Brian Hardin. You’ll find it with no problem there. And I assume that that will be similar wherever it is that you are looking. And, so, certainly check this out. Very much excited for Tuesday to come. I can't wait for this to enter into the world. I spent a bunch of time talking about how just creating this in Dolby Atmos, creating this in spatial audio so that it’s very enveloping. Like, I'm really looking forward to this getting out there. And, so, check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if being around the Global Campfire every day and having space for God's word created for us as we gather each day, if that is life-giving to you than thank you profoundly for your partnership. We certainly couldn't do this if we weren't in this together. And, so, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey this is Blessed to Serve in Georgia and I'm actually calling it and praying for Karen, the young lady who found out today, this is October 25th, that she has been diagnosed with cancer. Karen, I…my heart breaks for you and so many around the world like you that get kind of news every day. And it just shocks us when we get news like this, but it never shocks our Savior. It never shocks God. And, so, my prayer is that he would choose Lord right now to bring instant healing for you Father. The next time you go to a doctor visit they can't find the cancer, they don't know what it is, and that they are astounded and that you would proclaim loudly for the world to hear that God chose to heal you. And then I also pray that if God chooses to use the physicians or He chooses to use medicines, that you would do the same exact thing. And then lastly if God chooses to bring you eventually to Him and that is not our desire, but if that is His desire, that you would have a peace, that your family would have a comfort and assurance to know that you are face to face, you would be face to face with the Creator the one that loves you more than that we could ever love you. And then what we look at is painful and as sad your…you would be able to tell us don't feel sorry for me, feel grateful for me, feel envious of me for the fact that I am with my savior. For your family I pray for great healing and blessings and comfort as you all grew through this together. And again my number one prayer request Karen would be that you're totally healed and that God would be glorified through all of this. You're not alone.

Good morning DAB family this is June in Maryland calling in to pray for Karen. I heard your per request today for your prognosis of cancer and my heart just broke for you and I’m praying for you. So, let's pray. Holy Spirit, I pray God for a miraculous healing over Karen's body as she goes through this…this trial…this trial. This is just a trial. This is just a phase. God, we pray God for miraculous healing over your body. We pray that you be there to raise your two beautiful children and see your children’s children into the next generation and even into the third generation. We pray that God give you all the wisdom strength and love around you as you go through this trial. What God cannot do does not exist. What God cannot do does not exist. What God cannot do does not exist. So, you believe, you keep calling in, you keep praying, you keep the faith, you pray. When you wake up in the middle of the night you wake up and you pray, when you're driving and you think about it you pray, anytime you think about it you pray, anytime you feel fear about it you pray. You pray Karen because God is there for you. God is with you. He loves you and God never fails. Everyone have a blessed day.

Hi everyone, this is Toni from Germany, and this is for regarding the reading and message from October 25th especially Brian’s comment about it didn't feel fair the manner in Paul died. And you talked about endurance. And this resonated with me in part because the summer the Lord had me go through a discernment process as to whether I would stay in Germany to do my ministry or do it back in the states. And he made it clear that whatever I decided that would really be final. And I made the decision that it would be here. And I knew though in making that decision in the trials of life I wouldn't have the support of family with the exception like emails or phone calls and that even I would likely die alone. But my father has been a role model in this regard. During the beginning of the pandemic, he and my mom were in the nursing home and then my mom died, and the nursing home was in lock down. And my father had to go through the grieving process without the support of family. No one could visit him. The only contact was really with the iPad where I connected and in mass with him once a week. It was beautiful. I remember asking him, dad you feel the presence of the Lord, right? And he said yes. The Lord is appearing to you isn't he? He is. So, for all of us who have to make these kinds of decisions or in these kinds of situations the Lord is with us. And we will say it's worth it. God bless.

Hello, my DAB family this is Mark Street from Sydney Australia today's Tuesday the 25th of October and I'm just ringing in because I've been listening to this week's community prayer and I heard Blind Tony calling in saying that he wants some prayers for his prostate cancer. And I don’t know if I have the words to say…so let me just pray. Heavenly father we offer Blind Tony up to You. Lord he's such an important part of our community here. He gives his love and Your love through him to all of us Lord. And selfishly I suppose we all want to still to be here to spread Your message to us Lord and his wonderful poetry and music and his personality Lord. We know that You can heal him. Please heal him Lord so that he can spread Your message more through this community in Your name I pray Amen. Love you Blind Tony and I'm sure everybody else will be calling in for you too. Mark Street from Sydney Australia. Bye.

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