Ice Storm 2026

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I was hoping to upload a pic from our recent ice storm but some glitch is preventing me. In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt from one of my favorite short stories “The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. “This is a delightful spot,” he said, “we must ask the Hail on a visit.” So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice.” (The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde)

Desire and Aversion, Motivation, and Judgement

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“There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained.

The first has to do with desires and aversions—that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. 


The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. 


The third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and the whole area of judgment, the assent our mind gives to its perceptions. 


Of these areas, the chief and most urgent is the first which has to do with the passions, for strong emotions arise only when we fail in our desires and aversions.” 


— Epictetus, (50 - 135 AD) “DISCOURSES”, 3.2.1–3 a 

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