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Do Good Intentions Make Up for Collateral Damage?
by David Marshall 08 Dec '25

08 Dec '25

Former Order: Ecumenical & Ecumencal Institute Colleagues, Early IRON BOY readers (paperback & ebook published on Amazon on 6/15/25) have asked me about this. In response, I just published my CULTS article on Substack. I imagine this will rub some folks on both sides of the aisle the wrong way, but it's my truth. It's too long (five pages) to publish here or on Facebook, so if you read it and have comments, you can either do so on Substack or on this more private thread. Thank you.[image: Instagram-Cults-Image_6-28-25.jpg] https://open.substack.com/pub/marshallbooks/p/can-cults-still-do-good-work?…

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Jean Smith
by Richard Alton 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

Jean was a great trooper. She kept the boat afloat in Kenya and was the star of our Last Chapter program. Just a great attitude towards life. She will do well in her next posting! Dick -- Richard H. T. Alton ICA Global Fund United Methodist Creation Care The Last Chapter T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?

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Fwd: Jean C Smith - End of Life
by Sunny Walker 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

See the message below. *Sunny Walker * *She/her/hers* *On **Arapaho, Cheyenne, Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux) tribal land* You may have already received this message but for those that I missed, Jean has passed. sent 12/1 ******************************************************************************************************************** Dear friends, I want to let you all know that my mom passed away Friday night 11-28 from acute myeloid leukemia. She was cognitively (fairly) well right up until the 26th. Her health declined extremely rapidly those last few days. The family is working on closing her affairs and I would appreciate it if you shared this message more widely with her community of friends and colleagues. (obit to follow). Peace, Val Wainwright I can be contacted at vjwainw(a)comcast.net 604 So Laredo Circle Aurora, CO 80017

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The new pope mentioned “Brother Lawrence
by James Wiegel 02 Dec '25

02 Dec '25

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17yXQsskJQ/ Did we ever study Brother Lawrences book? Jim Wiegel “…the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk“. The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver

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Ike Powell obituary
by E. Caperton 02 Dec '25

02 Dec '25

Ike Garber Powell died peacefully on November 21, 2025, in La Mesa, California, surrounded by his children—Julie, John, and Joseph—and his wife, Charlene. He was born on January 7, 1938, in the small southern town of Cairo, Georgia, a son of John Augustus Powell II and Velva Lois Garber. He was deeply devoted to his family and his lifelong work in marginalized communities. As a teenager, Ike rose early to deliver 1200 eggs a day in his Model A Ford. He was an Eagle Scout and a football standout who set long-standing track records at Cairo High School. However, it was his involvement in the First United Methodist Church of Cairo, and immersion in the southern conservative Christian tradition, that set him on his spiritual journey of service and discovery. Ike earned degrees from Duke and Emory in psychology and religion as well as graduate work in pastoral counselling from Columbia Theological Seminary. While at Emory, he met the love of his life, Charlene Cronier. After taking his divinity degree, he briefly served as a minister in the Capitol Homes project in Atlanta before choosing ‘social’ over ‘parish’ work. With his family, he spent more than 20 years with the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), living in and working with impoverished rural and urban neighborhoods in the U.S. and abroad, helping empower people to improve their lives and communities. As Director of Training for the Appalachian Consulting Group (ACG), Ike played a pivotal role in institutionalizing peer support within Georgia’s mental-health system. Beginning with Georgia’s first statewide Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) program in 2001, he helped design and deliver training that enabled people with lived experience of mental illness to work as Medicaid-funded peer supporters. He later co-developed the “Peer Support Whole Health and Resiliency”model, expanding peer support into holistic, wellness-oriented recovery. His work helped make Georgia a national leader and inspired similar programs across the country.After a lifetime alongside people from varied backgrounds, Ike came to believe the greatest powers shaping his life were love, awareness, freedom, and gratitude. He believed in love for all of creation, awareness of our current reality and its imaginable possibilities, freedom to act on that awareness, and gratitude for the mystery and wonder of life. We will miss his compassion, leadership, wisdom, jokes, and stories. Ike is survived by his wife, Charlene Powell; his children and their spouses Julie and John Bertram, John Powell and Jane Springer, Joseph Powell and Kira Blaskovich; his grandchildren Keightley, Karri, Kathryn, Morrison, Dylan, and Calvin; and his great grandchild, Nora Charlene. He requested a graveside service in Cairo, Georgia, at a future date when he and Charlene can be interred together. His family is planning a celebration of life after the holidays and welcomes remembrances. Please share withJulie (jbertram520(a)gmail.com) In lieu of flowers, please make donations in his name to the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network.

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Cinco Gracias
by Milan Hamilton 27 Nov '25

27 Nov '25

My writing group facilitator assigned us to write down five things we are thankful for and write a paragraph about each, then after thanksgiving write about the actual experience of Thanksgiving day. A little alternative to sitting around the table asking everyone to say something they are thankful for. So this list just popped up for me and I thought I would share it with one group I am thankful to have shared and am sharing this big beautiful and dangerous world with. Wonder what you all’s Five Thanks might be: Cinco Gracias Google Translate The time I was born into Learning to read and write My teachers Poetry and song Happy Thanksgiving!? MM Sent from my iPad

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Africa Conference
by Richard Alton 24 Nov '25

24 Nov '25

*The Smoke That Thunders* The ICA has tried to have a global conference in Africa for many years and now we have finally done it. People from 20 countries (10 from Africa) gathered in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to look at how we all are responding to the times we are living in. At these conferences one is always shocked by the people one meets and the projects one visits. Although the Falls, the smoke that thunders, is amazing. I was struck on the first day by a Maasai women fully dressed in her tribal garb. We broke into our working groups, and I found we were in the same group, Climate Change. Her name was Josephine Ndirias from Kenya. She turns out to be the Executive Director of the *Mukogodo Girls Empowerment program*. It turns out she is from Nanyuki, Kenya. I had been to Nanyuki to visit the ICA Canada project, ilnqwesi, and had lunch with one of the Maasai leaders, Saaya, who turned out to be Josehine’s cousin. “My goodness, what a small world.” It turns out that Josehine’s work is the continuation of the Maasai work started by by Asha Spencer and Miriam Patterson many years ago. Asha and Miriam were there in Nanyuki for a year. We spend the next couple of days chatting about people we knew- Josehine’ still talks with Miriam Patterson on a regular basis. And we went through all the people I use to know: the late Vice President Biwott who use to demand money and vehicles from ICA if we cared about our lives. I was totally startled by Josphine and our meeting. We could have spoken together for the whole Conference. Conferences do that for you- the people you meet! Over 100 people to meet in person. Wow, 4 from China and one from Hong Kong plus 15 from Nepal. But not only the people but the projects you visit! We visited *Ele Collection* (www.elecollection.co) whose purpose is to Remove all Plastics. They have women plastic bottle collectors all over the Town/Park collecting bottles. They pay them by the pound. The Ele-Collections says its goal is to clear Victoria Falls and the National Park of Plastics. Ele processes the plastic bottles into building and road material which they sell. This all came about from the owner and a friend walking in the National Park and being attacked by an elephant. The owner’s friend was killed. They finally killed the elephant. When they opened the elephant’s stomach, they found it was full of plastic bottles. No wonder the elephant was mad! Ele Collection is about saving the animals from the scourge of plastics. Ele is a business who gets a lot of support from local companies and is constantly expanding. We were all struck by the methodology and skills shown. They claim they are the only local plastic re-cycling system in the world. We had to come all the way to Victoria Falls to find them. On the way to Victoria Falls I read two books. Just finished Paul Kingsnorth book, *Against the Machine, on the Unmaking of Humanity*. He points out that we are facing “increasingly impossible lives in the high-tech globalized world that has resulted from the consumer economy”. We are slowly being capture by a world that is unreal and losing a sense of being human. This second book, *Inspiring Transformative Change*, is on image shift and its focus on enabling group processing is what will allow us to rediscover the real world of personal interaction and human consciousness. The *Change* book is written by Elise Packard and Jane Stallman. It will come out in early 2026. Great Conference- the people and projects were worth it. Conferencing is an amazing way to find the Human Element in Global Development! Go Africa, where we all find our roots! Dick Alton, lives with ICA’s Greenrise Community, helps manage ICA USA’s Global Fund and way too involved in the Methodist Church’s Net Zero by 2050. Getting ready for his 84th birthday. *Southern Africa is gifted with exquisite** wilderness and its cr on the entire KAZA Region.* -- Richard H. T. Alton ICA Global Fund United Methodist Creation Care The Last Chapter T: 773.344.7172 richard.alton(a)gmail.com Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2 Won't you be my neighbor?

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Have I mistakenly blocked our community from my email?
by ballardica＠gmail.com 23 Nov '25

23 Nov '25

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Fwd: “Postures of Devotion” by Kimberly Blaeser
by Milan Hamilton 20 Nov '25

20 Nov '25

I've been a member of this network, Academy of American Poets, for several years. It includes a Poem a Day featuring a variety of poets, and on weekends selected ones of the "dead poets society". This particular poem really got to me this morning, especially as I read it while listening to the audio of the poet reading her own poem. You have to listen to it for its full impact I think. .Some poets just know how to read their own poetry and some don't. Enjoy, Milan ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Poem-a-Day | Poets.org <poem-a-day(a)poets.org> Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 3:08 AM Subject: “Postures of Devotion” by Kimberly Blaeser To: Milan <mellowmilan2(a)gmail.com> Before me Kawishiwi stretches— / river a palette of frost. Nearby ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ *November 20, 2025* *donate* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *Postures of Devotion* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *Kimberly Blaeser* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *—after **Kaveh Akbar* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…>*’s “**Poetry and Spirituality* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *”* Before me Kawishiwi stretches— river a palette of frost. Nearby glazed berries dot the cranberry bushes, melt into mirage. Icicles too drip remembrance. But metaphors of a world asleep fail this place where even now a pileated woodpecker beats a rhythm of search—repeats, day by day deeper. Watch while the leafless oak opens. Beneath the protective skin of tree, more hard-shelled beings— bark beetles, exoskeletons of ants. Hear the purr of wings landing, jarring rattle as head recites hunger. Watch the red blur of devotion— manic as our soul, our alone. Yet steadily each body maps resilience. Where survival turns with planet, chases the sun, wait is a courage we name winter. Beneath ice mink, muskrat, and otter swim, stalk sleek shadows of fish. Woodland dwellers find feast each season— oh despair, make that your gospel. Still, forest grandmothers—all roots trunks and limbs—uphold their pact. In rhythm of warm days and freezing nights, tree roots suction, sap spills through bark wounds. Then our tongues sticky with spring—then, our song. But, in January, we hold this promise. While lake ice shifts, dark a murmur, a creak. Now moonlight falls on snow crusts— always where two touch, night glistens. When distant wolf howls, answer comes. Imagine the upturned muzzle, body a triangle of sound. Hazel eyes mere slits. This reverence—an ancient hunger for pack. See, too, each black branch limbing—bare, suspended in soon. How pristine the listening posture of pine marten, of fisher, of fox— each body cocked. To pounce, to dive nose-first into snow’s secrets, to search winter tunnels for mice. We, too, poised like supplicants— rawness of the world a prayer we read but cannot speak. Silence an invocation, heavy as tobacco sinking into snow—into earth’s altar. Against moon’s brilliance, slit your eyes. Let warmth of reflected light fill you; that holy—that glance of tiny gods. Make of your hands an empty globe, your body a vessel taut as river. Copyright © 2025 by Kimberly Blaeser. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 20, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets. *more poetry* *listen* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *today’s poem* *read* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *weekly newsletter* *learn* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *literary seminars* *about this poem* “The phrase ‘postures of devotion’ stayed with me after I heard Kaveh Akbar <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…>’s talk ‘Poetry and Spirituality <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…>.’ I think about different ways devotion can be embodied, and I filled this poem with the more-than-human beings—wolves, woodpeckers, pine martens, and maple trees—whose gestures express devotion; express, in their own way, reverence and faith. The poem invites an expansion of these spiritual terms and a closer look at the intricacies of the world. It attends to seasonal cycles and traces the way the everyday miraculous can inspire our own transformation. Here and elsewhere, I write in praise of the ‘tiny gods’ who also spill holiness.” *—Kimberly Blaeser* [image: Kimberly Blaeser] <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> Kimberly Blaeser <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> is an Indigenous poet and the author of six books of poems, including *Ancient Light: Poems* (University of Arizona Press, 2024). A former Wisconsin poet laureate, Blaeser is an MFA faculty member for the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and an emeritus professor of English and Indigenous studies at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In 2020, she founded the literary organization Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po), and, in November 2021, served as a Guest Editor for Poem-a-Day. Blaeser lives in Burlington, Wisconsin. more at poets.org <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> [image: Ancient Light] <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *Ancient Light* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> (University of Arizona Press, 2024) buy the book <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *related poems* *“The Head of the Cottonmouth” by Roger Reeves* *read more* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *“Habilitas” by Rodrigo Toscano* *r* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…>*ead more* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *this month’s guest editor* Thanks to Tacey M. Atsitty, author of *(At) Wrist* <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> about Atsitty’s curatorial approach and find out more about our Guest Editors for the year <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> . *support poem-a-day* “Poem-a-Day is brilliant because it makes space in the everyday racket for something as meaningful as a poem.” —Tracy K. Smith If this series is meaningful to you, join the community of Poem-a-Day supporters by making a gift today <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…>. Now serving more than 320,000 daily subscribers, this publication is only possible thanks to the contributions of readers like you. donate <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> [image: Logo] <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> *Copyright (C) 2025 The Academy of American Poets. All rights reserved.* You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: The Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane STE #901 New York, NY 10038 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://the-academy-of-american-poets.mailchimpsites.com/manage/preferences…> or unsubscribe <https://poets.us20.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=e329a0cb6f08842f08a05d822&…> -- Mellow Milan Hamilton 80 North Center Street Redlands, CA 92373 Phone: (909) 943-1667 email: mellowmilan2(a)gmail.com

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Re: [Oe List ...] way finding
by Zoe Barley 19 Nov '25

19 Nov '25

Thanks - great article. Zoe Barley Denver Colorado -----Original Message----- From: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Nov 18, 2025 8:16 AM To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: W. J. <synergi(a)yahoo.com> Subject: [Oe List ...] way finding 96A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/science/neuroscience-brain-navigation-ma…) A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at SeaScientists and Indigenous sailors in the Marshall Islands are studying seafaring and the human brain.

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