Hawthorn Hill Journal by Richard deRosa

Some Early Winter Musings…

Our first real snowfall. A good day to take stock, read, share a few thoughts and, when the snow stops, crank up the snowblower to get at those places our wonderful, always dependable snowplow guy cannot get to. A bit of shoveling here and there as well. I used to tackle our long driveway with my tractor, which has a sizable blower, but have turned that task over to someone younger who can do in minutes what takes me an hour or so in the wake of a moderate snowfall. Comes a time in one’s life to let go of a few things. The letting go part is tough at the time. But over time, the freeing up that letting go enables seems very right, as some quite enjoyable replacements fill the gap.

These days, each of us has a lot to think about. Why is it that warfare maintains such a time-honored place in our collective lives? Doing harm to one another seems genetically embedded. Predation is a necessity for any species. But we seem to go about it as if it were some sort of genetically inviting game to play. I was struck by a puzzle clue yesterday, a quotation attributed to John Steinbeck. The clue: “A symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.” WAR is the answer. Waging war seems to be one of our grandest, most valued performances. Not much to brag about there.