What Have We Learned

The clouds yesterday, on the winter’s solstice, gave way just minutes before sunset allowing the light of the sun to give his farewell nod. We won’t notice the difference immediately but the days will begin to lengthen. So as a day, a week and a year ends, what have we learned?

  • That long about mid-February, here in our East Tennessee valley, the light will be long enough to germinate seeds.
  • That seed catalogs eventually give way to a garden plan that is part absolution and part salvation.
  • That not all timber is easy to cut on a portable sawmill. Black Walnut is too dense as Tim, Russ and I found out.
  • That leftover roasted Cornish hen can be turned into enough chicken salad to feed three hungry men in just a few minutes.
  • That log dogs can be moved on the lumber deck in the same amount of time it takes to fix a salad.
  • That some men who have experienced war know torture when they see or hear about it. And other men who received questionable deferments think it is ok.
  • That the rate of unemployment for men is three times the rate reported in the monthly jobs report. And that 33 percent of the adult men in our valley are unemployed.
  • That the stock market is at an all-time high.
  • That the Arctic is warming at three times the rate of the rest of the planet.
  • That my homeland of Louisiana will lose 30 percent of its southern parishes this century to the sea.
  • That I agree with Prince Charles, much to the chagrin of my ancestors, he is right, mutton tastes terrific.
  • That an adopted cousin who connected with his own biological family will remain my cousin.
  • That as older family passes away they remain present in our memories and our own flesh and blood.
  • That at least for the foreseeable future of the next few billion years, regardless of what we do, the sun will continue its journey.

And, I’ve also learned anew that fencing will remain on my to-do list as long as I remain above ground.

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Reading this weekend: I’m rereading selected bits from William Targ’s three great anthologies for bibliophiles: Carrousel for Bibliophiles, Bouillabaisse for Bibliophiles and Bibliophile in the Nursery.