“The greatest weariness comes from work not done.” -Eric Hoffer

Drifter’s Bucket List

Circumnavigate Shelter Island in a Sunfish.

Play Per-Olav Kindgrin arrangement of Bach’s Air on the G String with no mistakes.

Incorporate diminished scale in blues turnarounds…with no mistakes.

Build a guitar

Learn to speak a foreign language with moderate degree of fluency…probably Spanish for which I have a head start

Hit tennis ground strokes with topspin

Write that book I’ve been talking about for last 15 years.

And the other one I’ve been talking about for last 25.

Get rid of my toenail fungus

Get rid of junk in the attic..

…and in the basement…

…and in my office.

Take carpentry classes.

Get a soprano sax and get busy on it.

Keep up the Blog till one full year mark then start one of those books.

Avoid getting fired…again.

Be glad and grateful even if never accomplishing any of the above. 

To be of use

by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Got some positive feedback from readers (two to be exact) on earlier post with pix of people at work...so here's some more...short lunch hour, so not as carefully curated as previous.

...my all time favorite...

and finally...no wonder it's so hard to find a job these days...