"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Things I've Learned Since Moving to Hopewell
vil-lage Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Old French, from ville farm, village, from Latin villa 1 a : a settlement usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town b : an incorporated minor municipality 2 : probably a good word to describe Hopewell, VA
Amazing, isn't it, how much you can learn from simple things? And here where I've moved to, the little town of Hopewell, VA, there's lots of simple things. Here's what I've learned so far:
If you are the only big grocery store for ten miles, you can hide behind a bunch of trees and people will eventually find you anyway.
If you are a locally grown butternut squash, if you want to you can grow in a complete circle the size of a Christmas wreath.
The guy and his extended family in lawn chairs selling produce and boiled peanuts every day will never, ever, ever be back once you stop and like his stuff.
The gas station with gas for $1.51 actually burned down months ago and nobody changed the sign.
The gas station down the street with the best price in town doesn't take plastic in any form, for anything, and the people who work there don't have a clue where an ATM machine is.
The old beat up pickup truck with a trailer full of banged up paint cans isn't really a hot rod, no matter how much the kid driving revs the engine.
The uniform company panel van isn't really a hot rod, no matter how much the kid driving revs the engine.
The 1982 Toyota with three colors of paint isn't really a hot rod, no matter how much the kid driving revs the engine.
They sell stick on hubcap spinners.
You'll find the fish food across the aisle from the fishing lures. The cat food is across the aisle from the catfish bait. The dog food is all by itself.
That window seat upstairs might, when you take the dry rotted cushioning off of it, be a top from a steamer trunk dating from the 1930's. (Yes, that's a picture of it above. Neat, huh?)
All the antique stores on a street can go out of business simultaneously.
If you already have a 3rd street and a 4th street and you need to build one in between them, you build 3½ street.
And most of all:
It's OK to spend 30 minutes giving wonderful customer service selling a customer a $10 watch, because by then his wife picked out $150 more stuff.
And just for the record, my health is wonderful, I've started my business back up and its going really nicely, and I'm busier than a tow truck driver with a police scanner.
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. --Doris Lessing
