Five Star Friday's 173rd Edition Is Brought to You By Edwin Arlington Robinson

This week's Five Star Friday is brought to you by breast cancer, Occupy LA, plenty and gratitude, joy, the acid of wealth and fame, learning to live unblurred, unreported child abuse, a child's wisdom, questioning anti-bullying campaigns, the positive impact of saying no, and Edwin Arlington Robinson:

The world is not a prison house but a kind of spiritual kindergarten where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks.

     — Edwin Arlington Robinson

Happy Friday!

"The Diagnosis" by Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing:

The gravity in this place is different. I've spoken to others who've traveled out here, too, and returned home safely. When you become one of them, you learn quickly that you share a language others can't understand.

The trick, these fellow travelers tell me, is to accept the not knowing and find your equilibrium in that new gravity. Calm the mind. Find your balance out on the cold planet, whether or not you know the next step, or the date of the next appointment, or what good or bad news the Technetium-99 isotopes floating around in your blood during the last scan reveal.

You must be at peace with not knowing, they tell me. That is how you get through outer space, and find your way back home.

"Kick My Ass, Please!" from Kikki Planet

"Terrania, Wealth, and Health. An Essay." from Meklarian

"The Charisma of Fame: Lending Credibility to the Incredible" from Jane Devin:

I believe the glory days of writers as true cultural reflections and influences are gone. We are living In an era of well-franchised teen vampires and sorcerers, political jesters, snake oil self-help books and miraculous weight loss solutions. In literature, we are in the Age of Escapism. Socially, we are in an era that’s so devoid of real value, real beauty, real talent, real truth, real compassion — real anything — that on those rare occasions it comes along, we’re shocked. (The Susan Boyle effect.) Sometimes we’re even disgusted. (Who does that Michael Moore fellow think he is anyway?)

"My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan (UPDATE: 12/9/11)" from My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan

"Joy! A state of it, if you will indulge me… #reverb11" from atasteofjoy

"Lines" from Motherhood In NYC:

You will avoid lines, because although you have no memory of being hungry, that is what the lines represent to you. Hunger and need and desperation and time being less valuable than food.

"She Is Older Than I Know" from Lesbian Dad

"Drops from the Day" from Swonderland

"'Anger is a wound gone mad.'" from Spin Me I Pulsate:

I can’t listen about the man who just got 5 years for 4.5 MILLION images of child pornography without wondering if I’m one of those pictures. I will never know. I will never know if the man who took the pictures while the other man directed the action ever felt bad when he walked past me in the street. I wonder if he ever thinks about what he did, about the full impact of what he did.

On bad nights I wonder if he kept them and enjoys them still.

"Making It Big As a Small Blog: Exercising Your "No" Muscle" from Everyday Treats

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

And because you are a fan of finding good new writing on the internet:

Subscribe — Subscribe to this website to keep up with us every week.

Show your pride — Take one of our badges for your website and spread the word.

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

PS.  I have really affordable ad space available in the sidebar. If you use the coupon code MWAH when you purchase an ad spot, you will get 25% off your first order up to 30 days!

Comments

[Amanda]

Love the layers of posts I've read, with others I've yet to experience. Thank you again for this weekly pleasure.

[Roxanna (miguelina)]

Wow! Thank you, from the bottom of this small blogger's heart.

[Joanna Ciolek]

I love this week's choices. Each and every post is just pulling me int. Thank you!

[Cheney]

This is one of the best collections of links of come across on the internet in a while. We read good stuff. Thanks!