William Least Heat-Moon, author, wise man

One of the problem-benefits of having many hours off (so far, 51 and counting) and loving to read the printed word is doing so...especially his.

"After all," he wrote, "I lived in the most unfixed nation the earth has ever seen, a country conceived and populated by wanderers, wayfarers, migrants, immigrants, voyagers, vagabonds, most of them believing in the far side of the rainbow, in the possibilities of elsewhere, optimists for whom the road is an enticement beyond resistance and almost any there is preferable to a here..."

"Is there an American who has never muttered, "What if I just quit? Just said fuggum and took off?"

I could write many of his thoughts and words down but the post would, in fact, be his books.

Is it ever too late to become what you might become?

Civil? What's that?

Personal, civil contact with other humans is being challenged; you hear it in the way people talk to and about others, whether in person, in public, or on a CB radio. We no longer feel the need to treat a differing opinion with respect; instead, that opinion is wrong, stupid, asinine, or just plain whacko.

That does not bode well for out ability to deal with serious challenges in life, does it? Life ai t all roses and if one cannot deal with conflict in ways other than verbal or mental - even physical - violence, well, we are in trouble.