Just a quick note about the value of delight! I think on the east coast we take life a bit too seriously—or perhaps this is just a comment on my own life… in any case, here in Iowa we are having the kind of few days where your body just opens up—your sides relax, love just flows, and fun takes over.
Maybe some of it is the weather. Daytime around noon it hits 80 or so, and nighttimes have been cool, with last night probably just under 70. Clear sapphire colored skies—well, ok, just blue, but they seem sapphire to me. The open skies occasionally play host to huge fronts of rainclouds that sweep in dark from the west—but the clouds do their work—rain, lightning, coolness—and then sweep on out, leaving clear open skies and sunshine again. Now that’s my kind of rain!
One of the high points of our life here is the Mt. Vernon city swimming pool. The pool population has two age peaks—6 and 16. Sixers pretty much wander around and splash—and sixteeners spend a lot of time talking in little groups, sunning themselves, painting their nails—and occasionally jumping into the pool for riotous water fights. The boys, and a few of the girls, are also heavy into doing wild, flaying flips off the diving boards. All of this to a constant soundtrack of a local pop music station. “Gimme the beat boys to soothe my soul, I wanna get caught in your rock and roll, and drift away..”
PS, I don’t think it’s the weather. It’s the people, and it’s us.
I promise on Monday to be back writing something more serious about emergent democracy and so on…
On the other hand, maybe delight and fun and partying could be one of our big themes..