July

July is birthday month around here. Me, Debbie, nephew Tom, brother-in-law Allan, favorite niece Gwen [1], various and sundry sisters-in-law [2].

Naturally, being a modern fellow, I order all my birthday gifts from Amazon. And when I do, because I’m getting free shipping, I include something off my wish list for me.

This year that was Wendell Berry’s “A Timbered Choir: the Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997.”

I got no further than the preface before I had to pause because once again Wendell Berry spoke so directly to me.

He said, “I am an amateur poet, working for the love of the work and to my own satisfaction – which are two of the conditions of ‘self-employment’ as I understand it.”

I’ve done a lot of work because I got paid to do it. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s put a roof over my head and food on my table. But I’ve done a lot of work because it pleased me to do it, and that is a satisfying thing.

1. Just kidding Emma, Karen, and Madison!

2. There are so many of them, how to keep track?