more beauty, less truth

sometimes we headworkers seem to get a little myopic, what with all the reading and writing and teaching and imagining of alternative social arrangements. of course, we'd do well to seek beauty as well as truth in our work and in our lives. in fact, you might have passed some of said beauty today on your way to the office. i'm a chronic offender in this regard, so i thank the poetry muse for awakening me for a brief moment today. here's a selection from Mary Oliver's The Summer Day:

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

--Mary Oliver, from “The Summer Day”

i didn't actually kneel down in any grass (which, i just noticed, remains green in minnesota) or stroll through any fields, but i did take a break and walked out to get a lemonade while the sun still shines. too bad we only get one wild and precious life...