Bloom where you're planted!
Autumn came today in Southeast Missouri, and now we all remember why we love it here in the foothills of Crowley's Ridge, perched above the Sikeston flatlands and the Poplar Bluff plains. (Okay, so my geographical terms may not be out of the book, but it works for me!)
Throughout this hot, dry summer, I've questioned my family's decision to ever come to this God-forsaken place of humid, 105-degree summers, riddled each July with drought and plagued each spring with floods. Friday's Statesman gives us the list of the 22 Missouri counties that Governor Blunt has requested be declared natural disaster areas: Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dunklin, Howell, Iron, Jefferson, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Oregon, Pemiscot, Perry, Reynolds, Ripley, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Scott, Stoddard, Washinton, and Wayne. Yep, there it is, folks. Early spring, followed by severe freeze - Then drought. It's a wonder we have any trees left.
But look at it now. Wow. Aren't you glad you didn't sell out and move to... where? Do you think there's a perfect place in these United States? And if there were, wouldn't it already be over-populated? I've heard that California used to be the "promised land," but from what I've heard of the urban sprawl, air pollution, and over-population, I wonder if folks didn't just pave over paradise and make it a parking lot. (Love that song!)
When I taught in Fairbanks years ago, I had a bright little poster on the wall of my English room. ElFreda modified the quote for the Oct. 10 NSC: "Bloom where you are planted!" One of my students, troubled by her family's move up to the frozen north, told me how much that poster helped her through a hard time.
I suppose we can always do like my goats and look to the greener grass on the other side of the fence, but I wonder if we would really improve our situation if we just picked up and moved to those greener pastures...
Then we'd miss these golden days of autumn, for sure. Robert Frost's poem bears restating:
"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower,
but only so an hour.
So leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief.
So Dawn goes down to Day.
Nothing gold can stay."
From the green and gold hills of Tillman, this is your philosophical goat herder, Madeline, signing off...
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And, my lovely, lovely child - I have figured out who you are and can tell you what an absolute treasure you were to have in class! Of all the memories I have from teaching, those years were some of the very best!
Thank you so much for letting me hear from you!
And, as if it isn't bad enough that Dexterite has his/herself indulged in the odious Puxico goatburgers, he/she has actually foisted this carnivorous calamity upon the younger generation! For shame, Miss/Mr. Dexterite person! What would your darling 2-year old grandson think if he could look into the beautiful rectangular yellow eyes of a goat, and know that he had EATEN one??? Zounds! Freddie Kruger, indeed!!
I am shocked beyond words!! (Well, that's going a little far, I suppose, since I've never been beyond words before..) Anyway, I am horrified!
Do you have any other crimes you'd like to confess to, while you're at it??
Thanks for all the postings on my Autumn blog, folks! It went a lot farther than I thought it would, especially after we got started on the goat-eating issue!
It's nice to have some simple, funny choices to offer on the blogs, after all the wrangling we've gone through over the dogfighting issue. Everything has its place under the sun! I really appreciate all my virtual friends in the Blogisphere!