Bring on the day

It’s not like I need an emotional tourniquet or something, but these days I feel the world is full of dramatic tension.

Maybe it’s because the year just started. Maybe it’s because I have a package of new technology coming in the mail, and I feel the excitement of acquisition of a new toy. Maybe it’s because I noticed a slightly later sunset, which tells me that in a few short months, I’ll be elbow deep in soil, building my raised-bed garden, feeling the warm sun crisping my bald head.

Just writing those words has given me hope.

It’s not like this has been a bad winter. It hasn’t. But there’s something—perhaps genetic—inside me that loves the sight of the first leaves popping out of the eggshell-enriched soil. I’m not even a big vegetable eater; most of my stuff gets eaten by other people. Gardens are wild yet organized growth, square next to square of purples, greens and reds. These days, in the dreary basement of winter, those seeds are mere potential energy, but it’s the kind of energy that calls. And calls.

I stayed in Truckee last weekend. It took Kathleen and me three and a half hours to get there. Some friends from Los Angeles were there skiing, but Kathleen and I just visited with our friends in the evenings and took a long walk on the crisp, dry snow and a nap Saturday afternoon. The crowds and traffic gave me a headache. I wonder what is in the heads of busy-season vacationers. Do they think this is what Lake Tahoe and the Truckee Meadows are all about? Do they know they bring with them the things they are trying to escape from?

RTV No. 9: There may be a better world out there, but the only way to make it grow is to vote the weeds out and plant a seed of integrity.