Q: "Do You Plan to Overthrow the Government by Force?" - A: "Is There Another Option"?

Ugh, that was eerie. TD and I went for a walk in the dark. It was very dark. The moon had yet to come out. It was hard to differentiate the wet from the dried up puddles in the road. Then something began to rustle in the woods. It sounded about ten feet away and was paralleling our path. I get spooked. It could be a bear. There were signs warning that this is bear country. It could be only a raccoon. I wasn’t so worried about myself but I didn’t want some beast charging out of the undergrowth and grabbing poor little Trail Dog. But he didn’t seem concerned. He was not alarmed. He is quite vocal about intruders. He is a good littler watch dog.  That should have calmed me but it didn’t. I took him back to the trailer and got a lantern. I walked back and shined a light into the woods expecting but not hoping to see two red spots of reflection (that would be a wolf, wouldn't it - a bear would be what - two green spot?). I did not get any beady reflections I watched to see if I could spot any movement. I did not. Just the echo of our feet on the gravel I suppose. But I stayed awake for a long while worrying about intruders. This is crack country. Lot of anthyemine cookers hereabout. I probably would have been much more worried had I watched “Winter Bone.” But I had not. It would be nice to have a sawed off shotgun loaded with birdshot just in case. I finely went to sleep.

Before, they dare attack the wolves, the sheep turn against hares. Before their reversal directed against superiors, they turn on the lowest available quarry – Elias Canetti -  Crowds and Power, 1978  p59

Solving yesterday’s problem is the means by which we create tomorrow’s problems

“Do you plan to overthrow the government by force?” – What other choices do I have? – Jessica Mitford

7:03 – finishing breakfast – sausage, hash browns, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and bell peppers and coffee. Birds are chattering. The dog and I went for our morning walk up the hill. I have taken my pills. I need to remake the bed and sweep the floor. Don’t forget to brush your teeth. We walked as the sun rose above the horizon and the stream gurgled below us.

Zukofsky taught: the poet makes one long poem. / Mathematicians say Notation is notion. / The dream voice said: Imagination fails the dream – Hugh Seidman – Selected Poems, 1995  p143

80% of the land mass of the United States is within 2/3 a mile of a road

I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home – Jane Austin – Pride and Prejudice

There is how life is imagined or more properly how life is imagined as being lived by one and then there is life. For some the gap is huge while for others it is not so immense. For those for whom it is not it may be either because the gap does not exist or the gap can not be imagined. How many of us are jealous of someone (real or imagined) else’s life. A few are not and even we are sometimes envious. How often are we envious? Sometimes more. Sometimes less. It all depends on how much we enjoy our own company, not many can stand themselves all the time. You have to be really, really full of yourself for that.

Ain’t no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face – Fannie Lou Hamer

Without people there is very little adventure. Most of what there is, is waged against the bugs and the weather.

Combatants are allowed to injure each other just so long as they stand in a relationship of mutual risk – Paul Kahn

At Yosemite aircraft can be heard from 30 to 60% of the day. In the Haleakala volcano crater on Maui, 8 to 10 helicopters pass overhead per hour

[Progress] truly does not provide or even meaningfully mark the history of life – Stephen Jay Gould – Full House

People who have talked with old people who had themselves talked with older people are wiser than people who have not

The world deals with negation and contradiction and does not assert any single scheme. New signs on the federal building, they say FEDERAL BUILDING. On whether you’re dreaming or just thinking to yourself. The isolation, the boredom, the quiet, the space – Charles Bernstein – The Sophist, 1987 p11

One would have hoped that while doing something extraordinary one would not feel so ordinary

I don’t know why the more I gave, / the more you feared you would lose / my greed for you was so simple – Hugh Seidman – Selected Poems, 1995  p140

Siren blows – everyone fish; siren blows again – everyone stop. There is quite a congregation of trucks. Waders hang on lines to dry as if were the trout who were catching the fisherman. Three on a stringer. That’s the limit. It don’t take long. Fishing widows roam alone.

Just as failure was the measure of men, so too was success. Even more – David Goldfield – America Aflame, 2011 p31

I am on the road again. I’ve checked all the to-dos off my list – well actually I erased anything that I hadn’t got done yet. I stop at Unity Village. This is the first time I’ve been here. I have been passing by it for fifty years. It is time that I stopped and cheked it out. It is a place of love and acceptance. That’s what it says. Someone with the name of Sirita sets me up in a viewing room so that I could watch their introductory video. This is a place of love and acceptance, It tells me. It was founded in 1889. It is a society of silent help – the pray movement is at its heart and soul – the power of positive pray – pray for health, abundant life and relationship. I told her that I had been passing by here since I was a little kid. I wish I had a penny, Sirita said, for everyone who has told me that. The English part ends and then it repeats the message in Spanish. The Spanish version is different, its not the same video with Spanish instead of English. It’s a whole different production. I sit in the sun on a bench in a spot where the limestone has been sculpted by water. It is cool. Sirita had warned me about the deer – they will try to nuzzle you, she had said, but look out for the wild turkeys, they are very territorial.

One can sleep with anyone, but one can read only some people’s word – Benedict Anderson – Imagined Communities, 1991  p77

All they have to do is…and they make tons of money. And even if I were a person…I could work two jobs and save money. I know that I could…your children… set them up and see …Every day I do, you know what I mean… a certain tribe, or minority tribe…I don’t have it handy, I read about it. It’s like the lawyer says…twenty-three cousins that are related to …and step back and look at the big picture. I don’t think that I am… I don’t think so…that may be a separate discussion…except I don’t think so, because in every transaction I do…I think that the point that you are trying to make is a valid point, but… I don’t think so.