mom always said thank you notes were important

I received a nice thank you note today from another blogger whose work I re-posted,
Bob Higgins, of Worldwide Sawdust.
In the column "Dick Cheney Helped Me Till My Garden" he wrote essentially about today's poisoned political climate and what it is doing to so-called average citizens in our personal lives.

He wrote about the process of writing (he is a writer, visit his site, there is a fine piece up right now about time and perspective), about the relatively new art of blogging with its self-imposed demands and discipline, and about the relief of being able to set aside the digital matrix world that connects us to hourly world-wide outrages, by the simple act of opening the back door, taking in a deep cleansing breath, and stepping outside.

The real world act of being in the "now" that nature gives to any of us who makes time for it is pure pleasure to the senses. There is the physical exertion of gardening with sun and breeze on skin and muscles working, the savour and fragrance of eating real food, the connectedness in hearing the birds, in seeing color not manufactured by a lit screen.

My own computer is right next to a southeast window looking out at a blooming dogwood tree as I type. Through my shut window I can hear the robins telling each other where the worms are, and I'm asking myself, what am I doing in here? Ah, well today is rainy and cold.

I know Bob is talking metaphor, that is a sign of good writing. I think back to the old philosophical bones I used to gnaw. Quality. Time. Ethics. Nature. Some of us will never escape the lure of the ancient Greeks. Maybe this political climate is what made me begin my study of "mazes and labyrinths", which I promise to talk more about as time permits. I know at other times in my life, the poets and the classics did more for my well being than just about anything else. The timelessness of their questions and attempts at answers make me part of the pattern of a long and caring segment of humanity.

Well, to close for today, I must admit I had some decision to make about the Dick Cheney piece, whether to post it on my "all sweetness and light" garden blog, or on my "this blog kills fascists" political blog. The garden blog won out because of the garden respite theme, and anyone reading my garden blog will either have to put up with an occasional political piece or just quit reading.

This is just a blog, my blog. You can make your own if you choose to, or, better yet, leave a comment.