It is Thursday.  A morning sun shines in brilliance.  Nature is awakens !  I can feel it.

If you are a church-going person, today would be Maundy Thursday, a commemoration of the “last supper.”  Perhaps you remember the painting by Leonardo da Vinci?  How ironic that an aspect of that final week, was a dinner party hosted by Jesus for his circle of friends…  Many of us never know when our final week has arrived, — how felicitous that the finale be a dinner party !?  I think so.  Good food, good friends, meaningful conversation.

Maybe you can tell that I have been reviewing the contribution made by Epicurus, an Athenian who lived 341-270 BCE.  Epicurus believed that peace-of-mind was not a private affair.  Epicurus believed that the cultivation of appreciation of the simple things in life with close friends was the greatest of pleasures.  Inner tranquility comes down to reducing unnecessary pain.  Could there be a more important expenditure of precious time, than to cultivate friendship?

This morning good news from Ukraine.  Yesterday the Moskva, a missile cruiser, flagship of the Black Sea fleet was disabled by a Ukrainian missile strike, now is being towed back to port.  Kudo’s to the Ukrainian military!  The under gunned and outnumbered Ukrainian citizen-military have delivered a telling blow.  They have a long way to go in order to destroy an attacking Russian army…

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The right tune is always a good assist to our forward momentum…  I like this one by The Clash, Train in Vain (Stand by Me).

Train In Vain

By The Clash

Say you stand by your man
Tell me something I don’t understand
You said you love me and that’s a fact
Then you left me, said you felt trapped

Well some things you can explain away
But my heartache’s in me till this day

[Chorus]
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

All the times
When we were close
I’ll remember these things the most
I see all my dreams come tumbling down
I won’t be happy without you around

So all alone I keep the wolves at bay
There is only one thing that I can say

[Chorus]

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

Did you stand by me
No, not at all

Now I got a job
But it don’t pay
I need new clothes
I need somewhere to stay
But without all these things I can do
But without your love I won’t make it through

But you don’t understand my point of view
I suppose there’s nothing I can do

[Chorus]

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me?

Did you stand by me
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

Lyrics by Nicholas Bowen Headon, Geoffrey Jones Michael, John Mellor, Paul Gustave Simonon