Wednesday, January 12, 2005

I thank the Hodges of Eagle Peak Herbals for forwarding this beautiful text to me. It's by Sy Safransky, editor and publisher of The Sun Magazine, January 2005. You'll find it at the end of his column Sy Safransky's Notebook: AMERICA, they're going to dress you for the inauguration in something tight and sexy. Who says a 228-year-old country can't turn heads? The president will whisper that he has a surprise for you tonight. They all say that, don't they? You'll smile as if no one has ever kissed you this way before. You'll tell him his touch makes you feel young again. Please, America, don't tell me it was never about love. Don't say it was always about the money. I spied you once when you thought you were alone, when all the money-boys and patriots were off somewhere making jokes at your expense. I saw you rise from the bed and stand by the window. You were naked. You were beautiful. O America, I couldn't turn away. You closed your eyes and shook your head as if to keep from weeping. And then, America, you started singing. 8:43:04 PM    comment []

More and more birds at the feeders. We have a sparrow now, in addition to the juncos; not sure which kind. Will look it up. Dazzlingly bright and clear today. It was 7 degrees when I checked at 8 a.m. Some glass has fallen out of a crack in a greenhouse window pane; I'll have to cover it with duct tape and newspaper, I guess. My younger son was wondering whether it was worth starting a garden this year, given his current feelings of wanderlust. I have been pondering the same issue. I don't plan to stay here past spring. Unless I can drill a deeper well. Or something. So what's the point? But we have all these gorgeous catalogs, and making out seed orders and planning a planting scheme are time-honored traditions and really survival mechanisms, when you get down to it, in the middle of a hard winter. I thought Jesse should plan and plant, anyway; I hope he does. As for me--I don't think I'll get into planning or adding to the herb space outdoors in any big way. On the other hand there is that fenced-in area so perfect for a vegetable garden... But I am lucky to have the greenhouse, and a planting table. I have considered scooping out half the silt that fills it and adding a bale of bought compost (i have three bales left from last fall that never made it onto the herb garden). I could start hundreds of herbs in there, or maybe do salad greens, or vegetable starts. Then I could give them away, or plant them, or take them to the plant sales they have around here in the spring. Such green potential! Guess I'll spend the next few days cleaning up and organizing the greenhouse. 12:34:13 PM    comment []

Click here to review a proposed BLOGGER'S CODE OF ETHICS: "Some bloggers recently have been debating what, if any, ethics the Weblog community should follow. Since not all bloggers are journalists and the Weblog form is more casual, they argue they shouldn't be expected to follow the same ethics codes journalists are. But responsible bloggers should recognize that they are publishing words publicly, and therefore have certain ethical obligations to their readers, the people they write about, and society in general. CyberJournalist.net has created a model Bloggers' Code of Ethics, by modifying the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics for the Weblog world. CyberJournalist.net follows this code and urges other Weblogs to as well. Integrity is the cornerstone of credibility. Bloggers who adopt this code of principles and standards of practice not only practice ethical publishing, but convey to their readers that they can be trusted." 12:14:47 PM    comment []

"No matter how often and how far you digress, no matter how many clever improvisations you make to put off the exploration of your difficulty, or your impossibility; so long as you keep bringing yourself back. Like that path through the Park, which rambled aimlessly but brought you out in front of the dentist's office anyhow." -- Howard Nemerov, Journal of the Fictive Life 11:42:33 AM    comment []