By Effie Waller Smith
"I have no time for those things now," we say;
"But in the future just a little way,
No longer by this ceaseless toil oppressed,
I shall have leisure then for thought and rest.
When I the debts upon my land have paid,
Or on foundations firm my business laid,
I shall take time for discourse long and sweet
With those beloved who round my hearthstone meet;
I shall take time on mornings still and cool
To seek the freshness dim of wood and pool,
Where, calmed and hallowed by great Nature's peace,
My life from its hot cares shall find release;
I shall take time to think on destiny,
Of what I was and am and yet shall be,
Till in the hush my soul may nearer prove
To that great Soul in whom we live and move.
All this I shall do sometime but not now--
The press of business cares will not allow."
And thus our life glides on year after year;
The promised leisure never comes more near.
Perhaps the aim on which we placed our mind
Is high, and its attainment slow to find;
Or if we reach the mark that we have set,
We still would seek another, farther yet.
Thus all our youth, our strength, our time go past
Till death upon the threshold stands at last,
And back unto our Maker we must give
The life we spent preparing well to live.
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I had a quiet morning reading and catching up on email. When eventually Daniel woke up, we had him drive us to Sugarloaf Mountain, though we stopped on a rural road to make a phone call because the car's maintenance light came on -- Toyota assures us that it's because we're over the requisite number of miles for an oil change and we'll be fine for another couple of days. So son drove us up to the mountain parking lots, where we walked to some of the overlooks, though we did not hike to the summit because we were all chilly and there wasn't anything growing this time of year!
In the evening we took Daniel back to College Park and dropped off food for Adam, then watched two movies new to cable, Edge of Tomorrow and Draft Day. They're both serious Guy Movies; neither one passes the Bechdel Test, and they're entirely about the main dude and what he wants and what he can do and how great he ends up being for everyone around him, plus Cruise and Costner are basically playing the characters they play best, though in both cases they have to send their hero personas up a bit before they hit their typical stride. But I enjoyed them anyway, because aliens and football!
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