You're Going Out in THAT??!!

There is a reason for appropriate dress. It is a protection for us, but mostly it is to keep us from looking ridiculous.

















When Heathcliff and Catherine got their new
plastic Wal-Mart duck pond they became the
barnyard darlings. They welcomed one and
all as long as nobody showed up in a Speedo.

It's damned noisey out here...

The whole purpose of living apart from the hoi polloi is to experience stillness. Not the stillness of ok-the-tv's-turned-off-now-what, but the richness of a silence alive with possibilities. Silence is actually kinetic - moving, searching for thought. It is NOT a vacuum. It is filled with wisdom and learning.

Let me explain.

How often have I been encouraged to think and ponder a certain question or piece of information. How often have you? Are we not all absorbing information at an astounding rate? TV, radio, cell phones, IPODS and all kinds of technological fancies feed us info and how much of that info do we think and ponder about? Be honest. Probably none of it. The reason we don't ponder and think about it is because our thinking and pondering time is taken up by more information coming at us. If we're awake, we're listening to something. Very little of our time is spent in actually thinking, pondering or discerning. There is no silence. In fact, many people feel very uncomfortable with silence. They have to have some kind of noise (information) going on at all times. This is a bad thing. How can we make educated and thoughtful decisions if we can't think and ponder about them? You can't think and ponder when there is noise or distractions. Not really.

Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make. Silence is where we find wisdom. We actually THINK. We push our minds to new dimensions. We fill up the silence with our thoughts and pondering and into that silent universe we experience loud explosions of revelations. We're exercising that great brain muscle and the only place you can do that to an elevated degree is in the stillness.

Ok, back again to the purpose of moving out here to Villa-damn-Rica. To find the stillness. And I have for the most part, but sitting on my porch looking out at the woods, preparing to do some serious pondering I find I am awash in the concert of nature. Birds. Bugs. Leaves applauding the wind. Damn, its noisy out here.

But a good noise...

Into the Woods

The sophisticated world is a highly corruptible world. Money, power, beauty. All of these are temporary but folks spend their entire life pursuing them. Success is measured in dollars, possessions and the accolades of the media. I think I would prefer to measure my success in chickens. Or maybe goats.

I am about to withdraw. Leave civilization (practically) and head for the country. Of course, living in the United States means that no matter where you are, you'll still be close to some city. Today I live in Smyrna, Georgia, right outside Atlanta. Tomorrow I begin the big move to Villa Rica (pronounced EXACTLY as it's spelled, no Spanish inflection, please), Georgia. Villa Rica is 35 miles from downtown Atlanta (where I work) and 30 miles from the Ala-damn-bama border. In between a rock and a hard place.

The transition begins....