Footprint

Less is more. When we were installing the permanent collection of Native American artifacts, 10,000 items, I had to wear blinders. There's one little puddle left in the driveway, on the ridge top, and I enjoy looking at the footprints there. Billy Collins interviewed on the radio and he read some poems, what was most interesting was that I heard the line breaks, a different pause than a comma, way different than a period, just a slight hitch, which often allows for an expansion of meaning. I enjoy Fresh Air, until it falls into celebrity worship, but how can it not? It's the coin of the day, the worship aspect, I'm worth a million dollars a game. I can sell a lot of tee-shirts. Several hours reading about the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, first published in 1564, the Vatican's list of banned books. This was a boon to early publishers in Protestant countries, as there's no greater publicity for a book than being banned. It was printing, of course, that had opened this door. Paper, in 1350, then printing in 1450, a whole can of worms. Average people learned to read, suddenly there were romance novels. Outside the clergy, every tale was oral tradition. In the depths of this, reading, taking a few notes, staring off into space, I hear the roar of four-wheelers, coming up the drive. It's Bear and a friend. They've brought a six-pack and I'm drinking whiskey, we talk about building stairs, beam work, the bramble and rose of fall. Bear says to call, if I ever need anything. It's good to know that a giant stands by you. A delightful conversation, rough and country. They both wanted to know how I had cut two of the full tree-trunk posts in the house. The posts are seriously cool because they carry the main beam of the house (I call this a pony beam) and a branch off the main trunk carries a tie-beam at 90 degrees. Large mortise and tendon joint. They're both extremely elegant. I look at them, sometimes, and marvel that I made them. First you build an eight-foot long miter-box out of 2x12's, with a perpendicular saw guide, You have to establish a bench mark, the 'top' of the log; completely arbitrary, You just need to make three parallel cuts. I check my numbers, eight or six times. Then scribe a line, go over it a few times, then cut the line, with a utility knife, so that when I make the actual cut, with a chain-saw, there aren't any splinters. I only look intelligent.