When the flute players
couldn't think of what to say next
they laid down their pipes,
then they lay down themselves
beside the river
and just listened.
Some of them, after awhile,
jumped up
and disappeared back inside the busy town.
But the rest-
so quiet, not even thoughtful-
are still there,
still listening.
- Mary Oliver
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i like this one
i hope i can follow its call
next weekend
but for now
ambition calls
i am scheduled
to give a talk on thursday
on my work on the san andreas fault
and much remains to prepare
still, i'll take a moment today
to put aside my computer
and sit quietly by the river
before disappearing back
inside the busy town
at least the work is enjoyable-
slicing my map along the fault
and undoing the slip
trying to get things to match up
and to make a coherent story out of it
playing on the computer
making pretty pictures
slides that will animate
the geologic history:
alluvial fan deposited
at the mouth of the canyon
then offset by the fault
then a younger channel incised
into the western part of the fan
only to be covered soon after
by a landslide that diverted
the channel back to the east
and the whole fan complex
eventually ends up being
laterally shifted ~350 meters
by slip along the fault
over the past ~27,000 years
at least that's how i think
the story goes
i wonder if work that is done
with a spirit of enjoyment
with a minimum of ambition
perhaps with just a friendly anticipation
of sharing the results with others
can be something like sitting
by the river
stormy here this weekend
two feet of snow on thursday
followed by warm rain
last night and today
they are predicting
floods and mudflows
hey did you notice
who's feast is coming up tomorrow?
the angelic doctor himself
(i went on-line on friday
to check the lectionary readings
for the day--something i don't
often do--and they had a calendar
of feast days posted.
it was an episcopal site
but i expect these things
are fairly standardized)
anyway, i'll be thinking of you-
Aquinas's ardent disciple
sally
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