Today's first honored event rocked my world when I found out about it. The story of how I came to be a DK diarist has a chapter in that diary.
A whole lot of shitty things happened today in history. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about them. These days, I don't seem to. I'll toss you a link or three and move on.
And then I'll pull a 180 and end this diary with some exquisite art from a man whose beauty and talent we are still trying to understand and still thanking.
For Mother Theresa, whose Earthly struggle ended 11 years ago today, and whose struggle with her faith is known so deeply by those who struggle to reconcile so many beautiful words and so many horrible, horrible people.
May there be joy in your heart.
Six months almost to the day after hundreds of Vietnamese citizens were slaughtered, Lt. William Calley was charged for some of the carnage.
I have written, read, looked at, edited and cried over enough of that for this year, at the very least. The diary I wrote has plenty of resources for anyone who doesn't know. And I'll warn you now as I warned you then: it will kick your ass twice before you can breathe. Personally and intellectually, I've seen my fair share of shit, and that's some rank shit.
But if we bury it, if we perfume it, we dishonor the dead and those who prevented more people from dying.
Thirty-six years ago today, a day after Mark Spitz won his seventh gold medal at the Munich Olympics, the attack on Israeli athletes began.
So much shit. So much rank shit.
Here is a link to a link to an account of the events of that day and the next.
131 years ago today, Chief Crazy Horse was killed.
Someday I will be able to discuss European-First Nation relations with some manner of objectivity. Today is not that day.
Europeans came. Europeans saw. Europeans raped, stole, pillaged, lied, raped, lied, stole, lied, raped, pillaged, lied, stole and lied some more, not necessarily in that order. (That's the abridged version.)
And now we turn from the death to the life.
And what a life. Farrokh Bulsara was quite the entertainer and personality. He was born 62 years ago today, and despite having died in the 1990s, he still looks better than Keith Richards.
A lot of people make a lot out of how he died, the news of his illness, all of that, and that's fair. But for today, as with Elizabeth Barrett Browning, I don't want to focus on how Freddie Mercury died. Instead,
QUEEN - Las palabras de amor with lyrics
QUEEN - I want it all with lyrics
QUEEN - Don't stop me now with lyrics
Somebody to Love-Queen
One of my favorite songs ever:
Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen on fire live at the Bowl 1982)
And the concert:
Queen - Live Aid - Part 1 (1/5)