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HAIL AND FAREWELL
On very dreary daysI like to drive through the cemeterymeandering among the stonesuntil I find a freshly dug grave.I stop, under the vigilant eyeof the caretaker and carefully placea cassette of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dancesor Smetana’s Die Moldau into the player.As the melodies spill forthI hope they lift the spiritof the resting, bringing them a momentof…
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NOT TWICE
It is said that you can never go home againpresuming, of course, that you have left at some point.The fallacy of this statement is apparent,for there is often nothing preventing your return.What would make the statement accurateis that you can never go home againto exactly the same home you leftfor your leaving alters the place…
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TUESDAY TRUTH: THE SPIDER
Several things you need to understand. First, and foremost, a waterspout is a term no one around here has used in centuries, unless you mean a tornadic columnar vortex of water, and trust me, we spiders avoid those like the plague. Shocking, I know, but with eight legs we cannot swim. At best some of…
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SEPPO REJECTS A MONK 鐵笛倒吹 七十三
If you find the answer and rush to tell your teacher why are you surprised when he turns away from you, saying that is yesterday’s answer. If you want to impress your teacher paint the answer on the surface of the raging river or accept scorn with equanimity. A reflection on case 73 of the…
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DIG IT
He started digging early in the morning,and hoped that by lunch, he’d be wellon his way there, though he wasn’t certainhow he’d get up out of the holewhen lunch rolled around, but needis a good instructor, so he was surehe could figure it out easily enough.It was slower going than he imagined,slower by several magnitudes.He…
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FLIP IT
It would be an anathema to himif he were a Pope or held deeply feltopinions about anything, but he does not.He denies being vacillating, rather, he says,he is just open to a multitude of views,never mind, she replies, that hecan never make any important decisionexcept by mere chance or luck.He says he prefers life this…
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NEW LISTING
Consider them very carefullyfor you will have only this chanceand you don’t want to addthose which ought not be includedor be forever burdened by thoseyou overlooked or misassumedyou wanted to retain.When you are quite certainyou are finished, that your listis exactly as you wish it,that all your dislikes and regretsare properly delineated, thenwalk slowly to…
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RIDING THE WASTELAND
We set out with bold ambition, egos saddled and reined across a landscape left barren by our leaders who saw only carefully stacked boards and beams awaiting the master carpenter, great floral sprays dotting the lobbies of glass and chrome edifices, created in their own images. We ride in search of the promised land, and…
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KNOWLEDGE
It is difficult explaining to a child,even one who has reached the age of 40,that you once knew all there was to know.They are certain they know more than you,and they know all there is to knowso, a fortiori, you could not knowall that there is to know, period.They will say this with a certain…
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TUESDAY TRUTH: MISS MUFFET
She is anything but little, huge wouldn’t be a gross overstatement. And I suppose you could call a overstuffed brocade cushion a tuffet if you stumbled here out of the Nineteenth century. And just for the record, she was munching on a well-aged brie and sucking down a Courvoisier-laced Greek yogurt smoothie. Oh, yes, did…
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