Shellen Lubin's Monday Morning Quote

5 Oct, 2026 - #ErraticFall

Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 UTC

ERRATIC FALL

"A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives--all bear secret relations to our destinies."
Franois-Ren de Chateaubriand
MEMOIRES D'OUTRE-TOMBE

"Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they're falling like
they're falling in love with the ground."
Andrea Gibson

"Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale."
Lauren DeStefano
WITHER

Crisp days, steamy days.
Calm hours, blustery hours.
Sane moments, chaotic moments.
I can't keep track of what is
no less what's coming.

Is fall this erratic right now because
our world is, our lives are?
Maybe in the larger sense
but not specifically
in this moment
in time.
Fall is always erratic.
But, yes, the vicissitudes may feel particularly harsh
the curves particularly sharp
because so much damage is being done and
so much is unknowable of
what's still to come.

But isn't that always true?
Whether mack trucks or windfalls;
old friends endlessly entwined, betrayed,
or renewed
or a new face that lights up the room;
fair play or scheming
done by you or to you,
from greed or kicks or desperation;
letters in the mail (amid the junk)
an unknown phone call
(does anyone pick up for any call these days
no less an unknown phone call?
and yet, the possibilities ...)

We can speculate all we want,
question everyone, tabulate polls,
analyze, reflect,
make metaphors,
make historical connections,
and still,
still

The future is unknowable until it arrives,
and not even completely then--
you know: butterfly wings, ripples
in the river,
unintended consequences,
and all.

That doesn't mean we have no effect,
only that we may never know
how much we had to do with the outcome,
or just what was
the full effect
we had.

Shellen Lubin
October 5, 2026

28 Sep, 2026 - #FlashFloodFeelings

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 UTC

FLASH FLOOD FEELINGS

"Floods are never the answer to water scarcity."
Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

"'It feels as if it's going on forever.'
'There isn't enough water in all the world to do that. Eventually it'll stop and the sun'll come out. Every flood stops in the end and goes down."
Philip Pullman
LA BELLE SAUVAGE

"It is these empty spaces you have to watch out for, as they flood up with feeling before you even realize what's happened."
Aimee Bender

I hid from the rains this weekend.
Didn't want to be in the flooded world.
Saw videos of trees battered by the winds,
water pouring down in torrents,
the damage left behind,
but I stayed safe inside.

That's privilege.
Not having to go out,
not having to be subjected to the elements.

I hid from the rains in my safe little space.
But that can cause its own kind of flood.
Feelings flooded my body
filling up the space,
just as rainwater
fills an empty hole in the ground.

We need to get out there--
there's not much time--
touch hearts
change minds
hopefully put some guard rails in place
some checks to power
some boundaries to reckless abuse of our entire country
including our entire economy
until two more years
when we can maybe finally
stop the insanity altogether
and have some real accountability as well.

But only if we get out there
and face the wind, the water,
all the feelings--
the flood.

Shellen Lubin
September 28, 2026

21 Sep, 2026 - #SowingandReaping

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 UTC

SOWING AND REAPING

"It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring who reaps a harvest in the Autumn."
B.C. Forbes

"Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough."
Ted Chiang

"If a criminal was once a saint and a saint was once a criminal, then who is the criminal and who is the saint?"
Sanchit Gupta

Jewish and Celtic New Year
Fall Solstice
the harvest
back to school
the new theatrical season
all early Autumn
whatever learning we seek
whatever crops we harvest
of whatever we have sown.

Repentance
Atonement
Forgiveness
is not all there is
and is vital
but still not enough--
There is also learning, growing, changing,
doing it differently in the future.
There is also reparations, making good,
making whole.
There is also making something good, creative,
beautiful
transformative
from what has gone wrong.
There is so much more.

There is that careful application of self to tasks
continuing to learn from the world
digging deep to learn more about self
investment of self in ways of being and doing
bringing about deep and fundamental accomplishments
and changes.

And we reap more than we sow
because things grow:
plants and animals and people
projects and ideas
actions and effects that alter further actions
energy and passion that radiate in spokes
momentum that catapults everything forward.

None of that can be successful
without owning our missteps,
and today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
We cannot carve out different ways of doing
of being
until we can take responsibility for what we have
done and been.
Real responsibility.
Not just feeling bad, or, worse,
feeling sorry for ourselves that we screwed up.

This includes how we benefit
from unearned privilege
and unfair laws,
the complex reality which is our history,
our country
our lives.

We cannot change the past
but we can take responsibility for our part in it
and how we benefit from it.

It is not enough to go to a house of prayer
and ask God for forgiveness.
It is not enough to say
"I am sorry for whatever I might have done that hurt you,"
the traditional generic apology
that doesn't really take responsibility for anything.

This is the time to harvest what you have sown,
take stock,
atone for wrongs,
and start a New Year in the School of Life.

Gut yontif.

Shellen Lubin
September 21, 2026

14 Sep, 2026 - #HolyUnholyPomegranate

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 UTC

HOLY UNHOLY POMEGRANATE

"I felt my heart crack slowly like a pomegranate, spilling its seeds."
Trebor Healey
A HORSE NAMED SORROW

"I remember that pomegranate well--the leathery red skin, the fleshy weight of it in my hand promising wine-sweet clusters of ruby fruit. As I lifted it off the pile, I imagined the satisfying crunch, the release of tangy perfume, the juices glazing my lips and running down my chin. Ah, that biblical fruit with its poignant umbilical tip, choice of the gods and food of the dead."
Elle Newmark
65279;THE BOOK OF UNHOLY MISCHIEF

"Once when I was living in the heart of a pomagranate, I heard a seed saying, 'Someday I shall be a tree, and the wind will sing in my branches, and the sun will dance on my leaves, and I shall be strong and beautiful through all the seasons.'"
Kahlil Gibran
THE POMAGRANATE

Jewish New Year,
apples and honey.

But some say no no,
not apples,
but pomegranates.
As it was not an apple in Eden's garden
but a pomegranate that held all knowledge
beneath its weathered skin.
A pomegranate that tempted Eve,
and with which Eve tempted Adam.

Pomegranates and wisdom--
both worth losing our supposed idyllic playground.

I know they are my favorite fruit--
even now only available one season
(it used to be one month)
tough skin that must be somehow cracked open
but if cut, how it bleeds
and how the blood stains.

Yet picked apart slowly
with patient fingers,
the richest, ripest, juiciest seeds,
each holding the potential of growth--
a branch, a tree,
a million pomegrates--
each juicy seed both tart and sweet,
each story both holy and unholy,
contradictory co-existing reality,
like life itself.

Shellen Lubin
September 14, 2026

7 Sep, 2026 - #WorkForIt

Mon, 7 Sep 2026 00:00:00 UTC

WORK FOR IT

"The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth."
Wendell Phillips

"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble."
Samuel Gompers

"I pray for the day when working men and women are able to earn a fair share of the wealth they produce in a capitalist system."
Mother Jones

You thought control by wealth was new?
It may be more out of control than ever before,
but it is not new.

Everything we struggle for now
we have struggled for before,
many times before:
Respect for labor, both paid and unpaid:
Appropriate pay for labor, sharing in the rewards of that work;
Rights (voting rights, civil rights) for all people,
and a means of redress for those who have been denied rights.
Justice. Equity. Appreciation.

Now we have people in power
who crave the exact opposite,
(a return to an absolute monarchy their fever dream,
an oligarchy or plutocracy their goal, at the very least).
And again we struggle
to say "we are here"
to say "we all do the labor and we all matter"
to say "every adult citizen has the right to vote
and every vote has the right to be counted"
to say "this is our country and our government"
to push back against this mercenary lawlessness.

This is always a profound moment to take stock:
Labor Day, end of summer,
the harvest,
the new school year,
the Jewish New Year,
the new theatrical season.

So this is what I am thinking about this morning
on Labor Day:
We are here.
We all do the labor and we all matter.
Every adult citizen has the right to vote
and every vote has the right to be counted.
This is our country and our government.

But there will always be those who cynically play the system
and try to ensure it is not so,
so it will never be handed to us;
we must always work for it.

What will we do--what must we do--
to make it real?
to keep it real?

Shellen Lubin
September 7, 2026

31 Aug, 2026 - #PersonallyPolitical

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

PERSONALLY POLITICAL

"One of the first things we discover [in consciousness raising groups of the sixties] is that personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time. There is only collective action for a collective solution."
Carol Hanisch

"Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do... In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much."
Timothy Snyder

"Everything is political and the choice to be 'apolitical' is usually just an endorsement of the status quo."
Rebecca Solnit

Everything is political
(not as in electoral politics, but as in
having reverberating political meaning).

Everything is political
because every thought, feeling, and action
is informed by what we believe about the world
and ourselves,
and that has all been bred in a political climate.

Awareness--becoming
awakened, waking up, what's now
disparagingly called 'woke'--
is beginning to understand and appreciate
all that breeding we have internalized
and all those resonances and meanings.

So wanting not to be political
means you don't want to be aware of those things.

Okay.
But at least recognize
that itself displays entitlement,
because there are so many
who do not have that choice.

Shellen Lubin
August 31, 2026

24 Aug, 2026 - #RecoveryStint

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

RECOVERY STINT

"Pain in this life is not avoidable, but the pain we create avoiding pain is avoidable."
R.D. Laing

"We are all damaged. We have all been hurt. We have all had to learn painful lessons. We are all recovering from some mistake, loss, betrayal, abuse, injustice or misfortune. All of life is a process of recovery that never ends. We each must find ways to accept and move through the pain and to pick ourselves back up. For each pang of grief, depression, doubt or despair there is an inverse toward renewal coming to you in time. Each tragedy is an announcement that some good will indeed come in time. Be patient with yourself."
Bryant McGill

"The question is not how to get cured but how to live."
Joseph Conrad

So many illnesses and ailments
one after another after another
have eaten my summer alive.

Not that there haven't been great days,
great conversations, rehearsals, lessons, performances,
and more,
but always
also
coming into and out of
illnesses and ailments--
doctor visits, tests, meds, procedures.
It's all been quite exhausting.

Today took the whole day to write this--
in between naps
and trying to lay low
so that I really fully recover.
I know the process.
I know what it means to give over to the
damage, the incapacitation, the healing,
so that all optional suffering is avoided.

But, really?
This is summer break?

Shellen Lubin
August 24, 2026

17 Aug, 2026 - #CollectiveUplift

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

COLLECTIVE UPLIFT

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself."
Henry Ford

"What's needed is a heart of honey primed by the steel-strong conviction of collective uplift. And I mean collective uplift - that is, the uplift of everybody -- not just the rich, white, christian, straight males - but everybody - the uplift of women, the uplift of the poor, the uplift of the colored, the uplift of the queer, the uplift of each and every person on earth, across the ignorance-induced divisions and discriminations of our prehistoric days."
Abhijit Naskar
HIGH VOLTAGE HABIB: GOSPEL OF UNINDOCTRINATION

"When does a job feel meaningful? Whenever it allows us to generate delight or reduce suffering in others. Though we are often taught to think of ourselves as inherently selfish, the longing to act meaningfully in our work seems just as stubborn a part of our make-up as our appetite for status or money."
Alain de Botton
THE PLEASURES AND SORROWS OF WORK

If there are only two cookies
and one person
takes both of them--
grabs both of them--
that leaves no cookies for anyone else.

But if we make more,
there are more cookies.

Do you make cookies
or just take cookies?
Cookie makers are actually, traditionally,
happier and healthier
than cookie takers.

As long as they're not abused or oppressed
(Henry Ford, Shellen? really?),
cookie makers feel better about themselves
and are more gracious about sharing.
The actual cookie makers
(not the owners of the cookie factory)
65279;feel more successful
than cookie takers,
and what is success anyway?
(Wrote a whole piece on that for Backstage years ago.)

Yes, there are ego and greed and selfishness,
but those all come from fear.
The more cookies we make,
the easier it is to joyfully accept
that everyone should get cookies.

Are we all the same? No.
Are we all perfectly equal,
or even equivalent?
No.
And yet ...

That's what it's about.
The uplift of everyone.
No exceptions.
No exclusions.
No excuses.
Everyone.

Shellen Lubin
August 17, 2026

10 Aug, 2026 - #ItsaPhase

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

IT'S A PHASE

"Everyone should have the experience of getting lost in life ... learning how to tolerate uncertainty ... find or create a new path for yourself."
Cole Todd
BURN OUT OF A FAIRY GODMOTHER

"A transition period is a period between two transition periods."
George Stigler

"So we die before our own eyes; so we see some chapters of our lives come to their natural end."
Sarah Orne Jewett
THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS

This is where you are.
Now.
Not forever.
Just now.
This is where we are right now,
city state country
world.

As good as bad as confusing
as it might be
it's changing, ever changing,
changes that smack us in the phase
and those that burrow through unseen spaces.

It's comforting to know that,
unsettling
and yet comforting.
Well, I find it comforting.
Because if you can remember that in the glorious moments,
it will give you some peace when the house is burning down.

So just remember:
all the times--
brilliantly beautiful times,
deeply challenging times,
horrifically devastating times--
they're all just times
periods
phases
and the best we can do
is not get stuck in a phase,
trying to make it last forever
afraid that it will last forever.

It's just a phase.

Shellen Lubin
August 10, 2026

3 Aug, 2026 - #CareYetNotCare

Mon, 3 Aug 2026 00:00:00 UTC

CARE YET NOT CARE

"Is it possible to learn
How to care and yet not care?
Since love has two faces
Hope and despair"
Joni Mitchell
"The Moon at the Window"

"You don't have to care about everything around you. Some things are best left ignored."
Scary Mommy
www.scarymommy.com

8202;
"No one had told me what a heady stimulant not caring was."
Emma Sloley
THE ISLAND OF LAST THINGS

My ears are ringing,
actually sizzling,
like eggs are frying inside my head,
non-stop. Days on end.
It may be a side effect from medication
or it may be a reaction to the state of the world
or my world.
Or it may be all of it.
I'm trying to figure that out.

I've learned how to say "no" externally,
although it took many years
and many feeble and half-hearted attempts.
But I have not yet learned how to say it internally
(or have been unwilling to
since caring is such a huge part of who I am,
how I work, how I act, how I write, and on).
But it is killing me
especially now, as I get older.

And right now I can't hear.
You know, the perpetual noise in my head.

So is it possible to find a way
to deeply care
and yet not care?
To let go of carrying how things could be?
(I wrote a song about it so many years ago,
"I'm the keeper of your ideal self ...")
Is it possible to not take on the travails and troubles
of those I love, those I teach, those I collaborate with?
Is it possible to just let be
while still deeply caring for them?
I just finished a song for one of the shows I'm working on
(the title came from Randi Vaughan and June Rachelson Ospa):
"Let Her Be Herself."
I need to hear that.
Can I let her be herself?
Even if her world is crumbling around her?
If I can't change it, if it's not my job to try,
what good is my carrying it?
I am still, after all the years and all the "no"s
carrying too much weight.

Is it the same with 47 and
this whole damned administration?
Can I completely separate from the external news
and yet still care--empathize with--
those who are suffering far more than me
from the current policies and procedures?
Can I still take action--must always take action--
but not carry it on me and in me
all the time?

I have to try.
The buzzing in my ears is saying it over and over
inside my head:
65279;"You have to try to care
and yet not care."

Shellen Lubin
August 3, 2026