Perspectives

Since The Move I have been helping my parents install a sprinkler system in their yard and garden. It is not my first choice of activities since I think monocultures of grass are unattractive and silly, and I think a hose waters the garden just fine. But, it's not my yard.

When I was growing up, the biggest threat that was held over my head was that if I wasn't careful, scholarly, and industrious, I would grow up to dig ditches. Well, I guess the failure is complete since that is what I have been doing.

While sweating out under the hot Texas sun with a shovel in my hand, I am reminded of how little exercise I have gotten in the past few years. To make the job seem less daunting I remind myself I am making a tiny little scratch on the surface of a tiny speck of dust in an insignificant solar system lost on the edge of an unassuming galaxy adrift in an unimaginable vastness of Universe. That perspective made the job easier until my mother, in her wisdom, said "Yeah, but you're pretty tiny compared to those things, too." Thanks Mama.

"The Eternal Flush"

A "Museum of Government" bonus feature:

"This monument is found on the grounds of The Museum of Government. It is, of course, "fully functional". Originally, it included the "all-seeing eye" atop the pyramid, but vandals destroyed that part less than a week after the unveiling. The museum decided the "vandalism" was actually an improvement so it was never repaired.

"An amusing point of interest: the patriot who began this monument almost ran out of funds about half way through the construction. When word spread of this crisis, so many donations came pouring in, from people anxious to show their respects to the memory of government, that the project was expanded and there are now similar monuments across the country."