This place

I was thinking today about “The Man in the Hole” with the wall-to-wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death. I was wondering if instead of the seemingly sad story of his isolation and aloneness if he had perhaps been chosen to be the face and last representative of a bygone time. Maybe he was chosen so that the rest of his people could be left alone. In the story of his death it says they found him covered in feathers which made me think of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, just the feather thing, the mystery (a good excuse to reread the story).

Anyway, school is going well. In geography I had to write a paper about whether there is an end to geography and does place matter. I had a great time answering these questions. Our reading example was a CNN story about the Babushkas of Chernobyl. A few years ago, I read Svetlana Alexivich’s book The Chernobyl Prayer: the Chronicles of the Future so the article was not surprising to me and something I had already thought a lot about. And does geography matter? I compared it to the question do libraries matter in the age of the Google. I may have thrown in Chief Joseph and my uncle Lowell. I definitely ended on a poetic note. I’ll see if the argument was effective next week when I get my grade.

Here are some things that have been going on around here: a wren was sunning like a cat, stretched out on the deck railing, rump in the sun.

Yesterday I had to rescue a small rabbit from the window well outside the Goat Locker (Jerry’s office). It’s quite deep and this is the second time a rabbit has been down there, a quick hop over the daylilies plunges you down. So, I played a benevolent Farmer McGregor and sent the bunny on its way.

Mist over the lawn, the soybean fields
moisture hanging in the air
enveloping morning. This is what
summer is like here. Isn’t 99% humidity rain?

Only cicadas sing now
their last love songs.
The birds are prepping
for journey – or winter.
Holding their voice
for other activities. Except the Blue Jay
loudly proclaiming: Here I am!
This is mine! Here I am!
Look at me, look at me!

This is where I had lunch on campus today.

Be safe, be kind be on the look out for lost animals and angels.