My brother sends this as an inspiration to hop aboard a freighter.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.....Explore. Dream. Discover."
...Mark Twain
I saw an amazing vapor trail in the sky today. I thought if Bella and Tiger saw it, they would chase it like a ribbon or string, but I was content to watch, and imagine how it felt to be water released in the sky in just such a way. I also bought a Gardenia of incredible scent. Do I need any more excitement than that? Not in this moment. I look down and Ode Magazine is open to a photo of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in China. It is 22 miles long, and when finished in 2008 will be the second largest bridge in the world. "What is the longest," you ask. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans is 24 miles.
Also from Ode - "Bamboo plants suck heavy metals like cadmium out of the soil, which means they can make drinking water safer." My yard is loaded with bamboo. British biologist Colin Black is planning to reintroduce bamboo to Africa, where it was once an indigenous plant, and has now nearly disappeared due to overcutting. It can be used for furniture, houses, floors, and carvings. And I add, "flutes."
Another tid-bit from Will Pryce in Architecture in Wood. The average skyscraper requires a costly renovation within 30 to 40 years of completion. A steel frame can last 150 years, tops, but frames made of oak trees can survive more than 800 years. Wooden buildings can last for thousands of years and are ultimately biodegradable.
Today, on Michael Krasny, there was a discussion on the educational value of video games. Ode Magazine addresses the subject, and finds a place to admire the interactivity of video games. Hmmmm! It is not yet for me, but our children are a different breed. I did re-read Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. It is a way to understand what we know. The world of our children is different than ours. May we bond in commonality, and stream like a vapor trail until we disappear to form.