-
Like Millstones
From my high place I stood and watched the dog turn a half-dozen cows, efficient as a barking rudder, and my father came to me and said Why are you looking down? and I said I look like you. That you do, he said and left again. The stones in the road stared back at me. Man of action, they mocked. Don’t say such things, I told them. I’ve only ever loved you. That’s true, they said, and let me pass. The wind, comfortable today, parted the high grass like hair and came back around to me, carrying the voice of my mother on it. Don’t let your thoughts stay…
-
Harness On Our Back
I gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone. Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we’ll die with harness on our back. MacBeth, by William Shakespeare (Act V, scene 5) We went down into town today to do some grocery shopping and to buy a new vacuum cleaner. Truly, appliances and tools are no longer well-made. They are disposable junk, without a crumb of craftsmanship in an entire acre of store. While in the store, I heard my wife mutter something with outrage under her breath. She pointed out a woman who looked like Oprah Winfrey’s big sister,…
-
Remember, Remember
One of our neighbors has a serious problem with maintaining the integrity of his fences. That’s a polite way of saying that he doesn’t check his fences frequently enough, and his cattle routinely end up in other peoples’ yards. The local cemetery was forced to put an electric fence around the property after weeks of roving cows knocked over several tombstones and trampled flowers and memorials. Rumor has it that the owner of the cows was pressured to pay for and install the fence. I don’t know. What I do know is that Black Angus lives matter. At least to Jinx. I infer that he loves the cows because he…
-
The Hardening Of The Heart
I managed to stay awake until almost midnight last night, intermittently checking the election returns. When I finally went to sleep at 1145 pm, Biden had 223 electoral votes and President Trump had 166. Still, things looked very hopeful for Mr. Trump. My wife couldn’t sleep and got up before 400 am to check the election status, so I got up with her. Our reaction was the exact opposite of how we felt four years ago when we awakened to the news that Hilary Clinton was not going to get to grind her boot in our faces for four years. I had been telling family and friends for months that…
-
All I Can Do
-
Storm Coming
Our house is quiet tonight, and the hills and dales among which it sits are quiet as well. Amazing how fast the change came…just a few weeks ago and we had the air conditioning on. Tonight, it’s the furnace. This is the way with powerful forces. They can change so rapidly it staggers anyone who witnesses the change. A flock of thousands of birds, a school of thousands of fish…they move as one when they change direction, and their energy is beyond comprehension. Our house is quiet tonight, but the land is not quiet. Tomorrow will see the beginning of something, and who can say what it will be or…
-
All Saints Day
“Mom? Why did Jesus have twelve opossums? I mean, what did he do with them?” — Lizzy Beck This morning during my walk with Jinx, I was struck by how absolutely silent the world was. My own steps were the only sound in the pewter air. It was almost easy to believe that last night the air had been full of ghosts and spirits of ill-will, because the early Sunday hours were so clean, so spotless, so purified. Surely all the saints were watching as I crunched gravel beneath my boots and Jinx’s tail cut the air like a buggy whip. Into my mind came the opening line of Poe’s…