En transit

Am Trak wifi internet connections are about non-existent between Boston, MA and Erie, PA and slow and sporadic West of Erie. That's why today's posting will be brief. Plus, it's hard to report on much when you've been in a sleeping compartment for more than 24 hours. And typing is a pain as the car lurches side to side.

We aren't at the "Seen one farm field (or tree, or scrap yard), you've seen them all, but we can better understand how some folks might come to those kinds of assessments. The small towns and cities are different, except where they've been infested by national (global) chains. We're wondering if they reproduce through seeds, or spores, or rhizomes or...?

Is this charmer on "The Range" or in "The Cities?"

Photo by J. Harrington

Traveling by train, or auto, does give one a better sense of having travelled and of just how large this country is. No wonder we find it hard to get along. We may often agree on the same goals, healthy family, satisfying work, good friends, but have very different ways of attaining those goals. And we don't often understand how those different ways complement or contradict each other.

We have a suggestion for TPT. How about devoting 15 minutes of Almanac each Friday to having on location folks in Greater Minnesota talk about ("Show and Tell") what's important to them and why. Maybe then, the following week, more urban types could respond with how "The Cities" approach the same topic or theme. Maybe that would help more of us get out of our own bubbles. What say you @mlahammer or @CathyWurzer , care to help bridge an urban-rural divide? How do we get more Minnesotans talking about what we have in common?

                     The Two Hermits

By Kahlil Gibran

Upon a lonely mountain, there lived two hermits who worshipped God
and loved one another.

Now these two hermits had one earthen bowl, and this was their only
possession.

One day an evil spirit entered into the heart of the older hermit
and he came to the younger and said, “It is long that we have
lived together.  The time has come for us to part.  Let us divide
our possessions.”

Then the younger hermit was saddened and he said, “It grieves
me, Brother, that thou shouldst leave me.  But if thou must needs
go, so be it,” and he brought the earthen bowl and gave it to him
saying, “We cannot divide it, Brother, let it be thine.”

Then the older hermit said, “Charity I will not accept.  I will
take nothing but mine own.  It must be divided.”

And the younger one said, “If the bowl be broken, of what use would
it be to thee or to me?  If it be thy pleasure let us rather cast
a lot.”

But the older hermit said again, “I will have but justice and mine
own, and I will not trust justice and mine own to vain chance.  The
bowl must be divided.”

Then the younger hermit could reason no further and he said, “If
it be indeed thy will, and if even so thou wouldst have it let us
now break the bowl.”

But the face of the older hermit grew exceedingly dark, and he
cried, “O thou cursed coward, thou wouldst not fight.”

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