two experiences of adult life

“…ours are ‘ the two experiences of adult life’ of which Pavese spoke, success and failure, to kill the whale or wreck the ship; one should not surrender to incomprehensible matter, one must not just sit down. We are here for this-to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to stand the blows and hand them out. We must never feel disarmed: nature is immense and complex, but it is not impermeable to the intelligence; we must circle around it, pierce and probe it, look for the opening or make it.”

…from the Periodic Table

for more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce at: http://athomewithbooks.net/


(photo:  a man hiked an ascending trail for about a mile, cut a tree for Christmas tree, and carried it back to his car. We were hiking when this man carrying a saw passed us going up and while we were on our way back halfway down he passed us again carrying this seven- foot tree.)