Candle Flames of Finance

Sitting on my porch.  Watching the clouds come down over my head.  I can’t stop thinking about what all these clouds would look like from a second floor addition.  This place in New Paltz, New York has several things going for it:  One of which is clouds.  I look up at the Shawangunk Mountains and consider the clouds that have just been blown over the ridge.  They rise for a time and then they fall closer and closer.  As they approach this porch they get close enough to properly examine.  They aren’t consistent wholes.  They are countless different interlocking planes of condensation that shift and bounce independently to the dynamics of the wind.  They are only loosely coordinated in their movement.  If you stare for a while, you can see all the complexity.  Eventually they move on by. 

I have it in my mind that I want to build a second story on this house.  From the second story I will have a broader view.  I will top some of the trees.  I will have a porch that lets me walk out and gaze at the mountains with an uninterrupted view.  Behind me will be books.  Perhaps up top above this room will be a widow’s walk.  And up there I’ll put a high-powered telescope.  From there I will have the best view of all, of the heavens. 

This is what people do when they have a home, right?  They consider how to build on it.  How to make it better and better and better.  I can’t stop imagining all the things I’d like to do.  It’s mayfly’s moment though.  They all run into the candle flames of finance.  When could you pay for it?  When could you start such a thing?

Friends from New York.  Friend from China.  Old friends up to visit.  Certainly everyone looks a bit older.  Time’s merciless that way. Certainly everyone’s kids are older too.  With my oldest friend I can talk books and so I fish out the two or three I read this summer to share with him.  He has books to share as well, as I knew he would.  He’s better at staying in touch with old classmates than I am and I listen to all his stories of the people we once studied with, sitting beneath the clouds, on my porch.

Friday 07/21/17