1/17/07

The chaos of Rome

Trevor sent me this quote from the Writer's Almanac-

The Roman poet Horace hated the chaos of Rome, and when his patron gave him a farm in the Italian countryside, he wrote:
"I prayed for this: a modest swatch of land where I could garden, an ever-flowing spring close by, and a small patch of woods above the house. The gods gave all I asked and more. I pray for nothing more, but that these blessings last my life's full term."
I've been giving a lot of thought to E. M. Forster's Greenwood, to hermit traditions of China and Japan, to the chaos of the present day. There is a case to be made for continued engagement and there is a case to be made for recusing. Maybe they can be the same thing.

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