Above Us Only Sky

twenty twenty-six

heapings of heart and humor

full steam straight ahead

Confident that we’ll find a better way, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ take us “All Around the World.”  Bopping trumpet and partying piano—dancing us and merrymaking all.  Scatting Tajmo and Jon Batiste baptize believers.  “Maybe we ought to talk about / All the good we got going on.”  Let’s do that now.  

Say Hey! Indiana—State Legislators and Elsa Mendoza (with Fernando)

Fearing Republicans losing control of the House of Representatives this coming November,  white house operatives directed a four-month pressure campaign with the goal of manufacturing two more right-wing Indiana seats. Though 40 of the 50 members of the deep-red Indiana state senate are Republicans, 21of them joined Democrats in voting against this tyrannical redistricting effort—the senators built a sizeable majority despite facing social media shaming, threats of physical harm, and withdrawal of all Indiana federal funding.  Democrat André Carson, one of four Muslims currently serving in the House, has represented Indiana’s 7th district in DC since succeeding his grandmother in 2008.  On December 26th, he celebrates this bipartisan rejection of yet another Republican redistricting ploy.  “We saw the people’s power unleashed at the Indiana Statehouse, fueled by an amazing coalition of goodwill.”  Civic tradition defeats fascist grotesquerie.      

A Cuban American girl plays on the tennis team at the University of Miami where she also earns an MBA.  Elsa braves the shock of Boston’s cold weather, bundling up her firstborn child and taking him with her everywhere.  Naturally she hopes that Fernando will be drawn to her game—instead, she teaches him to toss a spiral the way that she practiced her serve.  And can he ever throw a football!  Elsa Mendoza, Mami, writes a love letter to her Indiana University quarterback, a finalist for the coveted Heisman Trophy.  “My dearest, darling Fernando,” she begins.  How lucky for us that we can read along.  She praises his innate “sense of self” and his “tenderness.”  Fernando’s response to her multiple sclerosis diagnosis, which for years she lovingly delayed telling him, cures her spirit:  “You’ve never once looked away.  You make me feel like I’m still every part of myself.  Like I’m still the same person you’ve been teammates with since we got through our first Boston winter together.”  Mami closes.  “My gentle giant.  My darling son.  My buddy.  My teammate.  I believe in you with every part of me.” 

A Cuban American boy hears his name called as winner of the Heisman trophy.  He buttons his suit jacket and walks immediately to hug Mami.  Fernando’s acceptance speech!  His freefalling tears, infectious laughter, palpable gratitude, love of life—all grown up and still the boy who was 4th on the depth chart in 4th grade football.  “Mami, this is your trophy as much as mine….  Toughness doesn’t need to be loud—it’s choosing hope.”      

 Tenacity and Telemetry—Delia Ramirez and Angus Hervey 

Daughter of Guatemalan immigrants who worked low-paying jobs in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, Delia Ramirez is the first Latina elected to Congress from the entire Midwest.  Savor the Congresswoman’s December 11th remarks to a modern-day ogress “testifying” before the House Committee on Homeland Security.  Representative Ramirez asserts to the current “secretary” of DHS: “You lied on the record…violated court orders…and your agents used chemical weapons in Chicago….  I’ve taken the first step towards your impeachment and I’ve called on the Judiciary Committee to open an investigation into your lawlessness.”  Accountability notice 1 -  deportation barbarism 0.      

“This gap, between the world as it is and how we’re told to see it, comes down to a choice about what we do with our attention.”  Self-described “solutions journalist” Angus Hervey, founder of “Fix the News,” redirects our attention.  We travel with him as he reports “all the news the headlines missed in 2025.”  His compelling graphs, both photos and statistics—his proof that progress does not make the headlines.  The traditional news industry intentionally feeds consumers a steady diet of negativity.  Dread and outrage sell.  This addictive newsfeed, however, doesn’t square with reality.  “We have built the safest civilization in human history while convincing ourselves that we live in the most dangerous.  Billions of people experienced measurable improvements in health, safety, and material conditions in 2025.”  Progress comes slowly, bit by bit, and resists sensationalizing.  But how sensational, the World Bank documentation that in the past decade nearly 100 million children escaped poverty.  Billions of people—100 million children.  “Somewhere in Egypt this year, a community health worker visited a village to distribute antibiotics and teach face-washing.  She’s been doing it for years.  That’s how diseases get eliminated…because people keep showing up.”  Truth be told—the Fix is in.

actor / director

activist wise and comic

Rob Reiner so rare

Kissing and Loving—Ellen Bass and John Keene

Ellen Bass resuscitates with a “Kiss” of a poem.  Seeing a lizard floating in blue/green pool water, Lynne jumps in for a possible rescue.  She lays the limp body in her hand and places her finger to its breast.  Coming face-to-face, she delicately opens the mouth.  Then, the lifeguard fastens “her big plush lips to the small stiff jaw” and blows “a tiny puff into the lizard’s lungs.”  More soft kisses.  Wrinkly eyelids stir.  Reviving muscles move.  Brief poolside rest—frisky tail farewell.   

Poet John Keene’s first “Beatitude” tells us to “Love everything.”  Everything—how often?  “Love everytime.”  Everything and everytime—at the foodbank, on the subway, in a hospital?  “Love everywhere.”  Whew—for how long?  “Love until you create a cavern in your loving / until it seethes like a volcano.”  Imperfect in body and mind—what now for cavernous us?  “Love love.”   

Watching and Listening—Concert Tickets

“Imagine all the people / Livin’ for today.”  Picture John Lennon attending this performance of “Imagine” at the UN Assembly Hall.  His 1971 song, reimagined at the All-Star Global Concert in 2022, dresses to the nines in jazzed finery.  From first drum brush to last piano tap—from Alune Wade to Youn Sun Nah.  What a cast of performers, perfect both soloing and assembling, and “above us only sky.”  

“Happiness hit her like a train on a track / Coming towards her, stuck still, no turning back.”  Songwriter and vocalist Florence Welch, befriended by a harpist at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert, rejoices that the “Dog Days Are Over.”  An orchestra and chorus accompany her jolting joy.  Abigail Spanberger chose this tune as her gubernatorial campaign song—at every stop throughout Virginia, her prediction that “dog days are done.”  Shine bright, sun, on Spanberger’s January 17th inauguration.       

indie news for truth

songs and poems for beauty

lizard kiss for love