Keep Calm + Keep Hope Alive

With all the doom and gloom on the boob tube—and the YouTube—lately, I’m leaning into a little counter-programming today.

When I came across the viral video above on Twitter/Xitter last night, it stopped me in my tracks. It was a gentle reminder that there is more good news—and good people—in the world than the headlines would have us believe.

Legacy and social media are funhouse mirrors…without much fun and very little sun. Both are always at least partly cloudy with a 99.99% chance of misinformation and overreaction. So I do my best to proceed with caution.

In typical internet fashion, people have plenty of feelings, opinions, and theories.

Me? I just have warm and fuzzy feelings of gratitude and hope.

A calm, cool physician breathes life into a lifeless newborn.
It’s the most life-affirming thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Who is the doctor? Did the baby survive? I don’t know. But I do know the circle of life is both a miracle and a mystery. And that, in itself, is always worth celebrating.

So keep breathing, keep crying, and keep trying!
Clint 🌈✌️

P.S. To help keep this celebration going, I’d like to paraphrase a few immortal words of Prince: ”Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Punch a higher floor!” ⬆️

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• Artists Redesign Iconic Peace Symbol (Positive.News)

• Thailand Makes Hormone Therapy Free for Trans People Just After Legalizing Marriage Equality (LGBTQ Nation)

• Copyright Office suggests AI copyright debate was settled in 1965 (Ars Techinca)

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ON THIS DAY = JANUARY 31

BIRTHDAYS

• 1797 = Franz Schubert = Austrian pianist and composer 🌈

• 1863 = Lewis Vernon Harcourt = British politician 🌈

• 1872 = Zane Grey = American author

• 1892 = Eddie Cantor = American singer-songwriter, actor, and dancer

• 1900 = Betty Parsons = American artist, art dealer, and collector 🌈

• 1902 = Tallulah Bankhead = American actor 🌈

• 1905 = John O'Hara = American author, playwright, and screenwriter

• 1919 = Jackie Robinson = American baseball player

• 1921 = Carol Channing = American actor, singer, and dancer

• 1923 = Norman Mailer = American journalist and author

• 1927 = Norm Prescott = American animator, producer, and composer

• 1937 = Philip Glass = American composer 🌈’

• 1937 = Suzanne Pleshette = American actor

• 1942 = Derek Jarman = English artist, filmmaker, and activist

• 1959 = Anthony LaPaglia = Australian actor and producer

• 1961 = Lloyd Cole = English singer-songwriter

• 1970 = Minnie Driver = English singer-songwriter and actor

• 1971 = Patricia Velásquez = Venezuelan actor and model 🌈

• 1973 = Portia de Rossi = Australian actor 🌈

• 1975 = Czeslaw Walek = Czech lawyer and activist 🌈

• 1977 = Bobby Moynihan = American actor and comedian

• 1977 = Kerry Washington = American actor

• 1981 = Justin Timberlake = American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

• 1987 = Marcus Mumford = American-English singer-songwriter

EVENTS

• 1949 = These Are My Children, the first daytime soap opera, is broadcast live from WNBQ, NBC affiliate in Chicago, Illinois.

• 1865 = The US Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, and submits it to the states for ratification.

• 2010 = Avatar became the first film to earn over US$2 billion worldwide.

• 2017 = Under the “Alan Turing Law,” thousands of gay and bisexual men who were convicted of now-abolished sexual offenses in Britain are posthumously pardoned.

HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES

• Inspire Your Heart With Art Day

PORTRAIT + QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea.
Understand that your morality is not law.
Understand that we are you.”
Derek Jarman

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• Substack = NSFW + Pioneers + Pride + SFW

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