Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Today's the birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of one of my favorite books, "The Little Prince". I decided to share one of my favorite quotes from the story:

And he went back to the fox.

"Good bye, " he said.

"Good bye," said the fox. "Here is my secret. It's quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisable to the eyes."

Back to Alaska

Words From A Wanderer

I do not know your wooded slopes and streams

But as the passing stranger knows the way

The nets of dusk have trapped the ending day,

When webs of shadow snare the filtered gleams;

I only know how dim the pathway seems

And how the dust from many roads of gray,

Has sunk into my heart and made me pay

With tears and loneliness for these few dreams.

I do not know the way the hearth-light burns

Nor how the kiss of childish lips may feel,

I only know the way the mad sea churns

And how the blowing spray, like bits of steel,

Can tear like savage teeth, and rip from me,

These last reluctant hopes, and leave me free.

Louis L'Amour

Photo by Gigi

Always try and remember the good...

"...whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

-John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

January 20, 1961

Photo: Herman O'Neil, Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty, New York, 1886

Shuggie and her Lolly

"Play is the exhultation of the possible."
Martin Buber

A book review

A friend of mine asked if I'd be willing to write up a few customer reviews for the bookshop she works at and I said I would. And how I'm sharing my first review with the entire interweb!

The Worst Hard Time:The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowlby Timothy Egan(He lives in Seattle by and by)In school I can only remember the Dust Bowl being mentioned in maybe a single line in an entire section of The Great Depression in our history textbooks. So my knowledge of the Dust Bowl itself had always been limited to Steinbeck's almost romantisized version of events and Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads. So when I bought this book I tucked into it right away. What I discovered from the very first page was that I was going to learn about our greatest enviromental disaster from every possible aspect. This book is loaded with facts and countered with firsthand accounts from the people that lived through this nightmare. This book is a testement about what happens when we mess with nature. Did we learn from this? As a collective, perhaps not. I don't think I have the proper words to really give you an idea of what this experiance was like for these people. So I'm going to share a conversation that a farmer named Bam White had with his son after witnessing their first dust storm (or "duster" as they became known as):What is that? Melt White asked his daddy.It's the earth itself, Bam said. The earth is on the move.Why?Look what we done to the grass, he said. Look at the land: wrong side up.It seems that to this day our way of thinking

about and caring for the environment has remained wrong side up itself.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. If you go to their site you'll find thousands of photos taken during the Dust Bowl.

And yet more Holga's

Giddy personified

Charlie Chaplin
"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

Holga, Tres`