It is worth considering that wisdom cannot be gained without reflection. We have become a society without time for reconsideration, rumination and contemplation. There is a part of the human nature that is at its best in high-speed give and take, in the hurly-burly of the jousting match that is modern commerce and politics. But there is a far deeper, far more important and valuable portion of our natures that can only survive and thrive if given the care and feeding of long, deep, careful thought.


We have edited out the downtime in our lives, backfilled all the deeper pools of human thought and drained the swamp of emotion - leaving a shallow, black-and-white one-layer version of our reality that is utterly devoid of the richness, color and balance of the well-considered life. We would all do well to read and embrace the words of our few bards like Wendell Berry ... and do far better were we to embrace at least some portion of the lifestyle and thought process that led him to become the person he is today.


We can either sink our roots deep into the fertile loam of civilization or cling to a withered, sere existence on the shallow sand of the unconsidered life.

Americans are morons. We have no memory. We have no wisdom. We have no shame. We will continue to commit political, economic and social suicide until the last billionaire scoops up the last pittance of the last wages of the last line worker and locks the gate on us all. - California Jane