1000 words

photo by LaTur

Thanks to Kim for passing on and thanks to OP for permission to post this brilliance here. Ed. Note: I also love how it concludes with ‘Pardon the brevity. Written on my iPhone’.

“Don’t call me Ishmael. I have never wanted to go to sea, to face the elemental nature of this world that we vainly seek to diminish with that mass delusion we call “civilization.” Yet, foolish though may be to embrace the fantasy that humanity has its own realm over and apart from the primordial chaos, I choose to stay on this side of the shore. And while one may be able to envision such a division between the wild and the orderly, I now know that it is truly blind to imagine it possible to eschew any true danger, limiting my adventures to commenting on a contentious listserv debates on bicycle usage or property development. (At least, in theory. Having never actually hit send, I do imagine I possess the fortitude to share my thoughtful, balanced, compassionate, and logically airtight exposition of some excellent theories on green transportation and parking space policies.)

And yet, dear reader, the brutal vicissitudes of our terrestrial mistress made themselves known in my French drain this week, allowing the contents of the tidal basin admittance up through the once-formidable steel grate on my patio, in a perverse disregard of gravity, decency, and my personal feelings in the subject. (more…)