By Ravi Shankar
Between forest and field, a threshold
like stepping from a cathedral into the street—
the quality of air alters, an eclipse lifts,
boundlessness opens, earth itself retextured
into weeds where woods once were.
Even planes of motion shift from vertical
navigation to horizontal quiescence:
there's a standing invitation to lie back
as sky's unpredictable theater proceeds.
Suspended in this ephemeral moment
after leaving a forest, before entering
a field, the nature of reality is revealed.
--------
Meteorological and biological factors combined to give me a headache for most of Tuesday, so I was sleepier and crankier than usual. I did drop Adam off at the pool and take Daniel to a Gamestop across the county in Silver Spring to get Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for the PS2, and also a PS2 since that's the only game system on which this game can be played. I remember when that was the next big thing, but now they're under $50 used -- the game was relatively expensive compared to the system. (Daniel still had birthday money from last year; he doesn't tend to want a lot of stuff, except the occasional video game.) I am told that there are demons and devils and eventually someone kills God, but I only saw a few seconds of the opening so I may be confused.
In the afternoon I had to fold laundry, so since I received the second season of Deep Space Nine on DVD yesterday courtesy an Amazon.com gift card -- little by little I shall get the entire series -- I watched "Necessary Evil," possibly my favorite episode of the show, though I still think "Duet" is the best and I love both the arc that spans the end of season one and the start of season two and the arc that wraps up the last season (it is no coincidence that Winn is a major player in both and that Kira is awesome in all of them...well, Kira is awesome in pretty much the entire series except maybe "Fascination" and "Looking For par'Mach..."). I want to watch the series through after we've finished Next Gen, though Daniel will be in college before we can get through it. We watched Warehouse 13's superhero episode, which was meh...I'm not much of a Jewel Staite fan, but she deserved more to do than play a cringing love interest. Then we sort of watched the Overpaid Players Celebration aka the All-Star Game.
The approach to Thomas Jefferson's home through the trees at Monticello.
The visitor's center has a model of Jefferson's renovation plans, though he changed them for the dome.
The many windows let in a lot of light and air.
This is not a window but single-acting glass doors that can be opened with one hand. Jefferson had several innovative doors installed, including a revolving serving door and insulated double sliding doors.
Jefferson also owned a variety of timepieces and a model of the planets going around the sun (Uranus was discovered during his lifetime).
The farm on its sunny slope overlooks the beautiful mountains beyond.
Within the outlines of a slave cabin lies the grave of Rachel Phillips Levy, mother of Uriah P. Levy, the Jewish Naval officer who bought Monticello and preserved it out of admiration for Jefferson's ideals.
And this is Jefferson's grave, flanked by the graves of family members for many generations.
Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!
No comments:
Post a Comment