8/7/94

Dear Ann,

While this has been a good summer for hay and cattle, it's been particularly demanding of my time. So I value all the more the rare Sunday afternoon (like this) when I can sit in my office, mind uncluttered, and study.

Reading a passage by Machiavelli in exile on his farm, I feel in good company—if not presumptuously so:

In the evening, I return to my house, and go into my study. At the door I take off the clothes I have worn all day, mud spotted and dirty, and put on regal and courtly garments. Thus appropriately clothed, I enter into the courts of ancient men, where, being lovingly received, I feed on that food which alone is mine, and which I was born for; I am not ashamed to speak with them and to ask the reasons for their actions, and they courteously answer me. For four hours I feel no boredom and forget every worry; I do not feel poverty, and death does not terrify me. I give myself completely over to the ancients.

While I refuse to succumb to regret, that most evil of heresies, sometimes in the mind-numbing hours of baling hay and such (in exile on the farm), I wonder if I might have done better with myself, earlier in life. Such thoughts are not worth dwelling on.

Today, I stepped out of the car with an armload of groceries, whistling some nameless tune that had been playing on the radio. I wasn't aware of the song until Leah said, "Don't you just hate it when the last song you hear gets stuck in your head?"

"Yes, I do."

So this evening I'm reading with my earplugs in (foam-rubber, industrial noise-killers, they shield me from distractions of TV, conversation, etc. when I read). When I got up momentarily to get an apple from the refrigerator, I made the mistake of removing the earplugs. The kids had left the TV on to "America's Stupidest Home Videos," and there was a guy with his parrot, both of them whistling the theme from the Andy Griffeth show.

So how do you concentrate on Machiavelli's "The Prince," with the whistling soundtrack of Andy Griffeth (not to mention the images associated with it) running inexorably in the background? Try it sometime, just try it.