Confucius. “While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve spirits [of the dead]?…While you do not know life, how can you know about death?” [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Anton Chekhov. “We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Snowy Morning

Wow, serious Winter Wonderland stuff going down here. But yikes! I have to get to work and swap a rental car for my car in the shop even before that. Ugh.

I love the noise in this poem, especially the harness bells on the horse, when he says, “Hey, what’s up?”

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

— Robert Frost

[Halley’s Comment]

Off to NYC via Amtrak’s Acela Express yet again.  30 minute delay this morning, no doubt due to this white stuff on the ground.  Weather guy on WBZ radio this morning said it dropped more than five billion pounds of snow on us this morning.  Egads.

Listening to Enimem on the Ipod…

My tea’s gone cold, I wonder why

Got out of bed alone

The morning rain clouds up my window

And I can’t see at all

And even if I could, it would all be gray

Put your picture on my wall

It reminds me that it’s not so bad

It’s not so bad

And it was a good day.  Couple rounds of tea, some great gifts, the company of family and the telephone.  Preparing for some horrible rounds of snow here.  Off to NYC tomorrow for me, weather permitting.  Should be a wild ride. 

Dad update.

Today I spent hours and hours at the hospital with my father. His health took a dramatic turn for the worse late last week. It’s a long story, one I might write a book about, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first. It’s one of the oldest stories in the world. I have lots of notes that I’ve been sharing with family and close friends.

In his haze have come some of the sweetest things my father has said in a long time. Yesterday he asked if I wanted to go to the zoo with him. Of course I do. Today he looked at me and asked What’s the concept? I said I don’t know, I asked him to tell me what the concept is. Yesterday he turned to my mother and said in a loud assertive voice — Let’s get out of here right now. Where would you like to go? To a Chinese restaurant. What would you get? Chinese orange soda.

My father is a PhD and a college professor. A man with a deep and powerful mind. A mind that now is somewhere else.

Some wise person said that our parents teach us so much, and the last thing they teach us is — and there I have to leave it blank. I don’t yet know what the last thing my father will teach me is, but one thing’s for certain, even as his health is failing, he is sharing so much with me, and in ways so much more than he has since I was a child. His eyes are a gentle brown. He is a handsome man. Somehow it’s been 40 years or more since he let me look into his eyes and study them. Now he welcomes me. His guard used to be so high, now it is all the way down.

It’s an honor to be able to return the gift of care he gave me, and if you ever doubt if it’s great to be so needed, it is.

[Scripting News]

Listening to Dave Matthews live at Folsom Field – this is a great band.  Where have I been all of these years?