Here we are in the future...
A long time ago, a pack of illiterate indentured servants traveled here from Germany and Ireland on ships full of dysentery, lice, and tuberculosis. This morning, their descendant, my daughter -- one of the richest human beings who has ever lived on this planet -- boarded a fantasy flying machine that carried her two thousand miles across the continent in three hours. Zero hardship, a backpack stuffed with treasure. Books. Chocolate. Music. Money. Everybody comfortable, everybody safe. Aspirin, antibiotics, soap and water. Clothes and lotions, instant communication. Everybody bored. Nobody happy.
We need to be climbing around on rocks and building fires. I don't know why we need this, but we really desperately do. I don't want to climb rocks until I'm actually climbing them, and then I don't want to stop. I want to sit on the rocks and watch the river. I could watch it all day -- there's more information in the river than there is in any book. This is true for fires, also -- controlling them, making them work. I know this -- why don't I use my wisdom? Resolution #1: more rocks, more rivers, more fires in our lives this year.
We need to be climbing around on rocks and building fires. I don't know why we need this, but we really desperately do. I don't want to climb rocks until I'm actually climbing them, and then I don't want to stop. I want to sit on the rocks and watch the river. I could watch it all day -- there's more information in the river than there is in any book. This is true for fires, also -- controlling them, making them work. I know this -- why don't I use my wisdom? Resolution #1: more rocks, more rivers, more fires in our lives this year.