Avoiding Beautiful September

1 The personal is boring as are my ruminations on the war. What I need to do I can't try: wander without shelter in the backcountry. Or go deeper into the polity, join a committee or a party. Minute by minute and season to season I like my life but what does it add up to, what reason to go on? No better than a squirrel or a spider. Spreadsheets, fake books, girls I want too mildly, modestly or morally to have. Can the economy and community be called love? You can be killed and buried in gravel Your children can be failed at school and marched to war You can be taxed and sent to gaol for the honor of it And there's nothing you can do about it. Will we find the universe not large enough to hold us? Will planet after planet be too old for us? If you were president, what would your program be? What one question is the key to another's truth. How do you spend your money? Do you believe in a god who can see all and understand? Or is he unable to care, a different species. 2 We take the long view that as individuals drop from sight, new enthusiasts will associate. Legs give out, lungs collapse, but we do not let the circle lapse. For every Aristotle there are a million toddlers who will advance no memorable theories. But the mist on trees and mountains, sunrise over desert, are for every merchant, traveler. My sons will take on cares, which toys are theirs, as their parents grow older. Slowness brings us to our goal: do one thing well. By that what is meant? Don't be a dilettante. Not having found the greatness of a single, clear description, definition, the greatness comes in doing everyday what's known.