Left, Right, & Wrong

Left, Right, & Wrong
by Garret Keizer for Mother Jones

People go to church for all kinds of reasons, but the main reason that people of a certain age will start going to church is that their kids are starting to overdose on the dominant culture. They go to church hoping to find solid ground. Sometimes they go to the polls hoping for the same thing.

"You know where I stand," George W. Bush said any number of times before his 2004 electoral victory, and I certainly did: on the wrong side of every issue. But did voters know where the Democratic Party stood or, more to the point, on what it stood? Did it stand on anything? If the question offends you, permit me to ask another. Had Howard Dean been an evangelical Christian with an evangelical Christian base, would his followers have deserted him because his Iowa holler made him "unelectable?" Or would they have closed ranks behind him because his stand on the Iraq war made him right?

A statue by Maillol, one of my favorite sculptors

"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."~ Percy Shelley
Mallory

"Spring Planting" By Grant Wood
This painting reminds me so much of what the hills around here in Western Iowa this time of year- duh, of course, since Wood was from Iowa. My point being... if you are one of my friends or family members in Arizona or California- eat your heart out

"First we see the hills in the painting-
then we see the painting in the hills"
~ Chinese Proverb
Mallory

"beguinage" by Sir Winston Churchill
Most people don't even realize that the WWII Primeminister or England was a painter.
Mallory

"Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope. will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day" ~Sir Winston Churchill
Mallory

The meeting will now come to order

Army Corps of Engineers General Henry Martyn Robert

"I have come to the conclusion that one worthless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a congress. And by God, I have had this Congress!" ~John Adams

During the 2004 election campaign, TV evangelists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson basically said that if you didn’t George W. Bush, you couldn’t be Christian.

I tend to believe the bumper sticker that’s out there that says "God is not a Republican...or a Democrat."

During the same 2004 campaign, the Republican National Committee asked churches to turn over their congregational membership lists. The RNC also actually postcards to voters in a few states with pictures of the Bible with the no smoking circle with a hash through it over it and another with two gay men getting married - warning that "liberal" politicians planned to ban the Bible and promote gay marriage.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican declared that Democrats who’d filibuster to slow down the confirmation of Federal judges nominated by President Bush are basically “against people of faith.”

James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson (who served time in prison for his part in Watergate) are hosting "Justice Sunday," a TV program from a church in Kentucky. Their message that they want to get across is that they think that anyone who doesn’t support Bush's judicial nominees are hostile to "people of faith." Frist plans to join them by video.

Frist and some Senate Republicans are threatening to exercise what’s been nicknamed “the nuclear option.” They want to change Senate rules to no longer allow the opposition to filibuster.

To filibuster, simply is to speak in a legislative body without “yielding the floor” in an attempt to delay or prevent a vote. It was designed to delay a vote on controversial issues in order to protect strong minorities from being overrun by majorities.

Meetings can be heated affairs, and church meetings, as anyone who has attended them can tell you, are no exception. Twenty-five year old Army Engineer Henry Martyn Robert found this out while stationed in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1862 when his church asked him to preside over church council meetings.

"One can scarcely have had much experience in deliberative meetings of Christians without realizing that the best of men, having wills of their own, are liable to attempt to carry out their own views without paying sufficient respect to the rights of their opponents." wrote Robert. He tried using different manuals on running meetings but everything seemed too complicated.

As trustee of the First Baptist Church in Bedford and as a member of the Board of Directors of the YMCA, Robert ran into lots of issues that could divide Christians: Should the pastor or the congregation approve new members? Should women be allowed to vote? Should the church move to a more respectable part of town?

Robert wrote a guide for all organizations. In 1876 “Robert’s Rules of Order” was published. Robert established a step by step system of guiding principles that ensured order while protecting and advancing democratic principles.

Rules of order ensure the right of the majority to decide, the right of the minority to be heard, the rights of individual members, the rights of absentees. If you follow the parliamentary procedures established by our founding fathers, a two- thirds majority vote is necessary whenever you limit or taking away the rights of the minority or of individual members or whenever you are changing something that has already been decided. Everyone has the right to be heard, to speak and debate.

I wonder what a Church Council meeting with Bill Frist, George W. Bush, Pat Robertson and James Dobson would be like. I wonder what General Henry Robert would say to them if he had to sit through it with them.

---

That's where I left it for the NEWSpaper, but you know me, I can't shut up, so here's what I cut out to make it shorter:

Frist and his “Conservative Christian” allies care only about control, not rights, and not balance. Their ambition is a one-party system. What’s worse, they’d love to make America into a Christian theocracy. They’ve invented the “culture wars,” taking advantage of social and doctrinal tensions in order to divide and conquer voters.

They assume that conservative Christians own religion in America. They demand that religious people vote only their way. They claim that "values voters" in America belong to them, and they have contempt for the faiths of those who disagree with their agenda.

I believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, my savior. I’m opposed to abortion on demand as a form of birth control, but I’m also opposed to clothes hanger abortions. I’m not a proponent of homosexual marriage, but I am opposed to any form of discrimination or denying anyone due process under the law. Poverty, war, taxes, corruption, education, health care, end-of life issues like what happened with the Terri Schaivo case are all things that Christians and Americans have different opinions about.

You can’t force people to believe in God or obey His commandments. You cannot make people Christian by an act of Congress.

Rev. Jim Wallis is the author of the best selling book ‘God’s Politics; why the right gets it wrong and the left doesn’t get it.’ In a recent column as editor of Sojourner’s magazine he had a balanced suggestion for Christians involved in politics, “We should bring our religious convictions about all moral issues to the public square - such as the uplifting of the poor, the protection of the environment, the ethics of war, or the tragic number of abortions in America - without attacking the sincerity of other people's faith, or demanding that we should win because we are religious. We must make moral arguments and mobilize effective movements for social change

Mmmmm, yummy coffee
Mallory

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matt 21:22

I painted this Holy Spirit dove with the blue hot-rod flames April 2005 for my nephew Braden for his confirmation.
Mallory

Pappa Ratzi

Ratzinger on war

"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a 'just war.'"

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, May 2, 2003.

A visit with Mark Twain

This was the day in 1910, when people claimed that Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn supposedly died. But as you know, reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated. As a matter of fact, I recently ran into him in a cigar shop in the Old Market in Omaha.

Here is a special NEWSpaper exclusive interview with America’s most beloved writer:

TM: Wow, thank you for this opportunity. What should I call you? Mr. Clemens? Mr. Twain?

MT: Since I’m easily four or five times your age, I’d expect you to call me “Sir,” but “Sam” is just fine too. I’ll lay odds that you won’t need to address me by name so formally, but just speak directly to me for the rest of your interview.

TM: Umm, well, let me cut to the chase. How does it feel to be 170 year’s old?

MT: I’m not nearly that old, my birthday’s not till November.

TM: What’s the secret to your longevity?

MT: Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

TM: You mean to say that it doesn’t matter what you eat? What about Trans-Fats, and Carbs?

MT: There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

TM: But isn’t there something that you suggest that people eat or drink, some vitamin or supplement that would help? Surely you don’t get so close to 200 without some kind of exercise regime?

MT: Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.

TM: So why haven’t we heard anything about you for 95 years?

MT: A person gets sick of fame, not to mention sick of creditors. And when people assume you’re dead, their expectations of you are greatly lowered.

TM: So you don’t miss the limelight?

MT: It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.

TM: What was the secret to your earlier success?

MT: All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

TM: What’s your advice for young people trying to get ahead today?

MT: Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

TM: I’ve kind of always prided myself in the fact that I’m not afraid to write about sex, politics, and religion in my column. Would you like to take this opportunity to weigh in on any of those topics?

MT: Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.

TM: If you won’t reveal your own opinions, would you at least comment on other points of view that you’ve heard in the media recently?

MT: In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

TM: Do you think that politics and religion don’t mix, do you think God chooses sides in politics?

MT: In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

TM: But what about National politics?

MT: It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress. Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself…

TM: Do you think that American politics has changed much in the last century?

MT: The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.

TM: What do you think about the Bible?

MT: Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.

TM: We’ve covered politics and religion, at 169 years old, how do you feel about women?

MT: I have discovered a great law of human action- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.

From "The Club" by Victoria T. Shupe.
Vick is an artist in L.A., a former student and my goddaughter. I love her stuff- most of it is a lot edgier than this, lots of struggle, lots of pain, lots of post-high school young-adult art and club culture in L.A.
click HERE to visit her web-gallery.
Mallory

ceramic bulldog, 2003, digitally manipulated in Adobe Photoshop, 2005
Geesh, with all these clay objects- people are going to forget that I draw and paint too. Be sure to visit other months on the menu on the right side of the page too, and feel free to email me comments on anything you see by clicking where it says "comments." Almost everything is for sale, best resonable offer (BRO).
Mallory

night game in the daytime, digital photo 4-2005
Mallory

ceramic cartoon bulldog, 4-2005
Mallory

finished and glazed ceramic face, 4-2005
Mallory

ceramic skull, 4-2005
Mallory

figure, ceramic 4-2005
Mallory

figure, ceramic 4-2005
Mallory

"Fallout," Digital image manipulated in Adobe Photoshop, April 2005
Mallory

journalism coach

Click here:journalism coachto see some of the photos my Newspaper students have been taking during their unit on photography.

Here are some self portraits by my Painting class. Tempra on paper. We used Chuck Close's grid technique. Students enlarged 4X4 inch photos into 18x18 in paintings using a 16 square grid. I told them to work one grid-square at a time, upside down. I told them that they didn't have to match colors, but they did need to match shapes and values (shading) as accurately as they could. These 4 really demonstrates what a variety of personal styles kids will have, and yet they're very recognizable for who they're of.
Mallory

New words to help you ‘chew the fat’

On this day, April 14, 1828, Noah Webster published the first edition of his “American Dictionary of the English Language.”

In honor of his contribution to the American language, ( I’m a firm believer that our national language is not English, we won the War for Independence, why should we continue to speak THEIR language?) I went to Webster’s website, http://m-w.com, to see if there were any new words that we should know. There was only one…

“Blog- noun [short for Weblog] (1999): a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.”

Blogging has become a favorite personal hobby, perhaps even a bad habit of mine. Whenever I send out emails to my friends to announce a new article that I wrote or an artwork that I posted, one of them always writes me back to tell me that they think I have too much free time.

When that happens, I always want to tell them that it really doesn’t take much time at all. That’s the whole point of blogging- some free service provides a template of a webpage for you, all you have to do is upload whatever you want to post there. Half the time all you do is click on one button and type a sentence commenting on whatever news article you’re reading or whatever website you’re visiting.

If you visit my blog at http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com, you can read this column or past columns. I also have links there to blogs where you can see artworks, read prayers, or read my journal as a Cheerleading Coach. Okay, it will look like I have too much time on my hands, but most of it was done when I’d be waiting around after school and before basketball games.

Enough about blogging. Macmillan Publishers compiled a list of the 52 most popular new words of 2004 which they posted on their dictionary’s website: www.macmillandictionary.com. Here are a just a few new words to add to your “Word Power” as they call it in Reader’s Digest:

Probably the scariest new word in our language has to be “Dirty bomb noun- a radiological weapon which uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material through the atmosphere.”

Perhaps the most overused new word is “Metrosexual.” If you haven’t heard it before, you obviously don’t spend much time with teenaged girls. It is a noun, it refers to “a heterosexual male with a strong interest in fashion, appearance and other lifestyle characteristics traditionally associated with women.” High school girls love this concept. I think it’s because they want desperately to be girlfiends with a boy without having to be his girlfriend. You know what I mean? That or they want boyfriends who’re suave and debonair, not just your everyday macho slobs.

I don’t know who invented “Speed-dating noun -a method of meeting a potential romantic partner by briefly talking to a series of individuals at an organized event, and indicating whether you are interested in seeing any of them again.” But I know it must have been someone pretty lonely and desperate. What ever happened to “Singles’ Bars?”

I’m sure by now that you’re familiar with “Re-gifting,” that’s where someone gives you something that you don’t want or need and you pass it on to someone else as if you bought it just for them because you have no idea what to get them or how to get rid of whatever you got. But have you heard of “Shopgrifting?” It’s “the activity of purchasing something from a shop, using it, and then returning it within a specific period in order to get a full refund.” I think that a lot of dads should think about doing this with their daughter’s prom dresses. As if they’ll ever wear it again anyway.

And finally there’s “Fat Tax- noun -a tax on foods which are considered to be unhealthy, especially fatty or sweet foods which can lead to obesity or other health problems.” I always thought it was funny when smokers and heavy drinkers would gripe about having to pay a “Sin Tax.”

Frankly, I think that a “Fat Tax” is a great idea, I’ll take any help I can get. If they can discourage me from eating things that are making me lose my battle of the bulge and at the same time generate revenue that could pave roads, repair schools, retrain people for new jobs, or provide more people with health benefits, by Gosh, that’s what I call our government work for us.

Love it, expressit, sell it, just don't be afraid of it!
Mallory

Scratchboard manipulated in Photoshop. April 13, 2005
Mallory

Mona Moved

World At a Glance



Paris

Mona Lisa moves: "Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork the Mona Lisa finally got the setting it deserved this week, when curators at the Louvre museum in Paris moved the painting to a larger room. For decades, visitors eager for a glimpse of the diminutive portrait have had to wedge themselves into the cramped, dimly lit Salle Rosa and elbow through the crowds. Now, the Mona Lisa is at one end of the Salle des Etats, a great hall with more than 2,000 square feet of standing room. The hall just reopened after four years of renovation that added better lighting and high-tech climate control."



In case you hadn't heard.

Plot wasn’t secret

Red Lake, Minn.
Plot wasn’t secret: "As many as 20 teenagers may have known that a classmate intended to go on the shooting spree that left 10 dead on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, police said this week. Investigators arrested one boy, Louis Jourdain, and charged him with helping the gunman, 16-year-old Jeff Weise. But investigators believe as many as four students may have helped Weise plan the attack, and others may have known it was coming. FBI agents are sifting through data on more than 30 computers at Red Lake High School, where Weise shot most of the victims during the March 21 rampage before killing himself. “It feels like it’s a bad dream,” said Donald May, a member of the tribal council. “We’re in shock."

So what I want to know is, how much media time did we have to spend on Terri Schiavo, the Pope, and the Royal second wedding that could have been dedicated to analysing and preventing this sort of thing?

Computer Gender

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. ''House'' for instance, is feminine: ''la casa.'' ''Pencil,'' however, is masculine: "el lapiz.''


A student asked, ''What gender is 'computer'?''


Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether ''computer'' should be a masculine or a feminine noun.


Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.


The men's group decided that ''computer'' should definitely be of the feminine gender (''la computer''), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they used to communicate with other computers are incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
(No chuckling... this gets better!)


The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (''el computer''), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

I saw this at www.comics.com today and just wanted to put it on this "electronic refrigerator door" that is a blog. Hope it makes you laugh as much as it did me.
"A Case in Point" by Rob Esmay
Mallory

Values Fund could be a bi-partisan legacy

The State Legislature has about a little less than a month left. Will they revive the once lauded Iowa Values Fund? Our friend Clarence Hoffman has been working hard to make sure they try.

Our own Representative, Republican Clarence Hoffman was one of 11 members of the original Values Fund board. The Values Fund granted $56 million to 36 projects statewide in 2004. Those investments have helped create or keep more than 14,000 jobs in Iowa. Better paying jobs than average.

When it was created in 2003 the Fund didn’t really have a permanent source of funding. $100 million came from the federal government that Democratic Senator Tom Harken helped finagle for economic stimulus. That was a great start. But without permanent funding, some Senate Republicans were leary.

Gov.Tom Vilsack signed it but line-item vetoed parts of the bill that Republicans wanted to use to relax business regulation and reform taxes. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that he miss used his line-item veto and that the surviving bill was void. In September, a special session of the legislature came up with some temporary funding.

Hoffman and fellow Republican Representative Chuck Soderberg from LeMars along with two Democrat; Reps. Donovan Olson of Boone and Roger Thomas of Elkader proposed a new version of the Values Fund bill. This bill has fewer opponents according to some newspaper and journal reports, and seems to have bi-partisan support.

Hoffman chairs of the House Economic Growth Committee and has been leading the charge to bring back the Fund and make it an enduring program.

The House plan promises $500 million over five years for grants to businesses to come to or expand here in Iowa. Research at Iowa's universities, job training at community colleges and other economic development programs would also benefit.

Once again, funding remains the biggest challenge. The Denison Bulletin reported that Hoffman is leaving the source of funding to the leadership and the governor.

Senate Republicans are proposing tax credits to companies who create new jobs. They also want to freeze property tax rates for seniors. But the Senate is split evenly between 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats. The Democrats hope to clean-up Iowa's waterways, and want to keep Republican tax cuts in check.

The Senate tie, the first since the 1930s, could be a good thing for Iowa. Legislators on both sides of the aisle can reach across and cooperate, even if it means a compromise or two. If they succeed, they will be setting an example that the U.S. House and Senate would do to emulate. I think that plenty of Americans are growing weary of bitter partisan battle.

It will be a big job. Lawmakers want to come through on their Values Fund campaign promises. Both the House and the Senate have to work together and both parties will have to work together. And they’ll all have to come up with something that will make it past the governor’s veto pen. Since he’s not running for a third term, he has nothing to lose by vetoing a bill if he thinks legislators are trying to sneak a broader regulatory and tax reform agenda by him again, hidden in the greater good of the Fund itself.

Some legislators have thought about of issuing bonds for a couple years worth of temporary financing until money starts coming in from new casinos that the state gaming commission might be okay. Casino licenses could mean $30 million in new state revenue every year.

However they pay for it the Iowa Values Fund, it will be a boon to our economy. It will also help plug a hole in the wall to help prevent Iowa’s “brain drain,” by providing careers for young Iowans who otherwise might leave the state after college.

If they follow Clarence Hoffman’s bi-partisan leadership and restore the Values Fund, it will be a tremendous legacy for him and vicariously for Charter Oak.

"A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mallory

Two Quizes

Charles Schultz philosophy...

Take this quiz:

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
6. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

~attributed to Charles Schultz, creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip

Christian Exodus :: Come Out of Her, My People

Christian Exodus :: Come Out of Her, My People
This is REALLY scary. Appearantly, there's a hyperconservative Christian group that thinks that President Bush, a Republican controlled House and Senate and Reagan, Bush & Bush II apointed Federal Judiciary is too liberal.

They're actually urging true believers to move to South Carolina en mass, so that...

"Rather than spend resources in continued efforts to redirect the entire nation, we will redeem States one at a time. Millions of Christian conservatives are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. Therefore, we must concentrate our numbers in a geographical region with a sovereign government we can influence through the electoral process."

Eventually their hope would be for South Carolina to once again secede from the Union and thereby once and for all found a "Christian nation" based on the 10 Commandments.

Yikes.

Heaven Can't Wait (Promo) David Schimke

"Heaven Can't Wait
Jesus was a radical, and it's time to start saying so"
Here's an excellent piece on being politically progressive and theologically orthodox.

Here's an exerpt:

"The thing is, I do believe. I spent my childhood running through the halls of my family's big old church. Mom taught Bible school, Dad directed the choir, and the minister who confirmed me remains a philosophical and spiritual counselor. They made me the bleeding heart I am.

The Jesus they taught me about lived and died in the name of justice, in the spirit of peace. He was an anti-establishment activist who begot peacemakers from Gandhi to Chavez, King to Mandela. And I had forsaken him: in social circles, because my progressive friends equated Western religion with na•vetŽ; professionally, because I wanted to get the story. And while, on some level, I will always be sorting out the whole religion thing, I'm no longer reticent to say that I believe Jesus walked the earth. That I believe he provoked the powerful, considered economic injustice a sin, and welcomed all people -- no matter what their race, religion, sex, or sexual preference -- without judgment or expectation.

In short, I believe Jesus was a radical, and the time has come to start saying so."

Self Portrait. Pencil. 04/01/2005
Using the Chuck Close grid system with seventh graders again.
Mallory

CampusProgress.org | Terry Schiavo's Irony

CampusProgress.org | Terry Schiavo's Irony
This is an excellent, but tragic piece about Terry Schiavo that most people might have missed. I think it's especially important for young people to understand. Michael Schiavo didn't kill Terry Schaivo, the "Culture Wars" didn't kill Terry Shaivo, bulemia killed Terry Schaivo.

Boarding a Bus

In a small-knit Iowa town I watched
a couple board the bus and take the seat
behind me. They'd waited till then to count
their cash. I could hear each of them whisper
fives and ones like vespers, and repeat, then declare
they couldn't afford to go. "But," she added,
"we haven't had a vacation in—" "That's
very true," he said. And they sighed into the rolling scene:
the sunset on a sea of corn,
a lonely red gas station, an old man changing a flat.
I don't want to scare anyone, but
this is your life too.
Tell me how it's any different.

by Steven Huff, from 'Proof.'

Flowers. 1970 by Andy Warhol

Is it so small a thing
To have enjoy'd the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done?


~Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet