Everyone is like this. Everyone at 25 looks like some celestial being, impossibly beautiful and alive. And only old people know this. If only we KNEW we were godlike at the time. Anyway, it was very moving to see an ordinary life glorified, as all lives are in death. Sunny afternoon here, love, Ian.

Hjalmar Munsterhjelm's Metsälampi Kuutamossa (Forest Pond in Moonlight), oil on canvas, 1888

I really loved "The Bells of Old Tokyo" by Anna Sherman. It's travel writing but covers about 200 years or so of Japanese history. Not in-depth but brilliantly written and accessible for someone who knows little about the subject (me!).

I continually find people rallying round this idiocy with flimsy excuses for it almost as scary as the first order proposals themselves. The way people totally subordinate their intellect and judgement to manifest nonsense, all in service of an aggressive infantile wannabe tyrant. It's really grim.