Half-hearted Fanatic

Although not exactly a hero of mine, sad the way the more you learn about people that can happen, I do still like Edward Abbey.  His quote at the end is one of my favorites, and was in my mind today. 

I had been working through several ideas all week for this weekend's post, without settling on any one thing.  I got some business things done with the start-up; temporary business cards made and a visit with the Small Business Development Center - as well as my regular FT job.  Fought off an insidious chigger attack with lots of help from my wife's essential oils magic.  I must have picked those buggers up at a consultation I did near Winterset.  Started teaching 3&4th graders at church, and my own boys had a touch of a stomach bug.  I also made some progress on my nursery beds this weekend so I will be able to supply harder to source plants locally for clients in the future. 

And although I got that done, I did not make time for a real informative post.  Instead I took Edward Abbey's advice and took the family out to the Brenton Arboretum, where we "messed around" and "rambled out yonder".  We played for a long time on the natural playscape they have there, and got in a short walk around the "Vanishing Acts" trail.  The girls found a bright green Copes (could have been eastern) gray tree frog in the port-a-potty, which we caught and moved to less odoriferous settings by an oak tree outside.  Although I had feared it was traumatized by all the squealing, by the time we left it had already found a meal of something with very long legs!  Sadly, the camera battery was dead by then.

So I leave you with this...

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast...a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.

Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)