There are times that I find myself wandering pensively in the woods, asking aloud, “so how should I presume?” I just read about the land sinking -- up to thirteen inches a year in some places -- in the Central Valley of California. I also just read about there being no mountaintops left in certain areas of West Virginia anymore. None. And, the coal companies are pulling … [Read more...]
So how should I presume?
In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T.S. Eliot positions the question, “so how should I presume?” front and center. J. Alfred Prufrock was a moody, urban, isolated, yet sensitive thinker. He is stricken with feelings of alienation and an incapability for decisive action that has been said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent … [Read more...]
Wendell Berry’s weapons of mass destruction
I'm pretty sure that in his now-famous press briefing of Feb. 12, 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wasn't trying to write poetry in the vein of William Carlos Williams. Yet, how beautifully he captured the conundrum at the center of all human attempts to make sense of reality, helpfully set to verse by Slate: The Unknown As we know, There are known knowns. There are … [Read more...]