Go to New England, read Robert Frost.

Here I am in rural Connecticut, and I think among the best aspects of this trip is the opportunity to frolic through all the rural upstate New York/Connecticut forests, valleys, fields along rivers, rapids and across bridges and mud puddles...

I love it.

That said. Please, everyone... go to New England. Read Robert Frost. I am not sure if he is the quintessential poet for this area, but he is in my heart. Every wooded area through which I have wandered is littered with mending walls, long stone fortress type walls crumbling with age. Every turn seems to be two roads diverging in a yellow wood, and I can't count how many birches I have been tempted to swing on birch branches subduing them and riding them down over and over, until not one but hung limp.... Perhaps I am romanticizing it a bit... but what is life without a little romance?

I am lucky here in Connecticut to have people with whom I can stammer through poetry discussions on higher levels and in more depth. Adam and I had a great conversation about Blake last night, and today during school I was lucky that Tom (the dean not the fellow SAT teacher) stopped by my room during a free moment. I enjoy our meandering conversations exploring the world. We seem to cover such depth and matter in brief exchanges, he is a very encouraging man and Kent is lucky to have him amongst their faculty's ranks. We talked about if it was or wasn't selfish to study English Literature in lieu of working with the refugees, or running after school programs... the spot where I travel in this conversation leads toward a place where when someone lives their passion in life, that energy and excitement is contagious... so whether your passion be studying and teaching Shakespeare, building boats, opening schools in Afghanistan, starting churches in Mexico, or filling out spread sheets... its good.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of conversation of when a wise-man (and part wise guy :o)) found time to sit and talk about the meaning of life, and impart his wisdom, and even more incredibly, help illuminate and discover wisdom I had within me all along... it was a good day.