Sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterdays life

No, this isn’t some “Leo’s on the ledge” post. The title of this digital scrap is a lyric from a song released on a groundbreaking record 40 years ago that I just picked up at the famous online retailer named after a river not the Nile. Any guesses? I’ll give you a hint…If you guess it I’ll burn you a copy…

I don’t know if I’ve plugged Hugh Macleod’s blog before, but his gig is “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards.” He’s a bit sardonic like yours truly, and on occasion he flips a card that really gets me.

Since in some ways I have floundered for the “last fucking decade,” I’d rather not in the next and during my vacation there was much time for contemplation. Weed pulling and shoveling rocks don’t spend much time occupying the matter grey, so something had to. While my ten year floundering has been more personal than professional, I did give some thought to a question recently posed to me: “If you could change careers and do anything you wanted, regardless of pay, what would you do?” My snappy answer was, “You mean besides catching and hitting cleanup for the Sox?” After the fantasy answer, I went serious and then drifted toward the dream-fantasy again: “I’d probably want to evangelize the benefits of alternative energy like solar, wind, hydrogen fuel-cell, etc… I want to bring Exxon-Mobil to its knees.” For now that effort is limited to not buying their products. I’d rather fund Hugo Chavez.

Well, it turned out to be a very productive week back at work, but vacation did change me and my priorities. For one, I’ll be spending less time in front of this keyboard and more time in front of human faces, primarily my family. Kyle and I have a family cookout to attend today, but until then I’ll be out in the yard in the dust, sweat and thought.

“First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe…. Here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it! It only serves to turn a few mills, blow a few vessels across the ocean, and a few trivial ends besides. What a poor compliment do we pay to our indefatigable and energetic servant!”

— Henry David Thoreau,
“Paradise (To Be) Regained” [1843]