I\u2019ve started this newsletter several times.<\/p>\n
First, I thought I\u2019d write about the fact that I just voted for the first time in my life, and what it meant, in that nebulous out-of-focus way I have of defining my certitudes.<\/p>\n
Then I thought, no, I\u2019ll write about the surreal conversation I had the other day with a seller-of-something, but then thought I ONLY ever have surreal conversations with sellers-of-everything, be it cosmetics or creeds.
\nPerhaps I\u2019ll write about the radio and TV shows I\u2019ve recently been on, thought I. Shows which I rarely actually watch what\u2019s wrong with me do I need my head examined what\u2019s the big deal, and the ambiguity I always feel about this business of expressing myself. But then I thought, if I don\u2019t watch them, how can I talk about them, so gave that idea leave to go.
\nOr maybe all the amazing things that I\u2019ve been reading lately in my research for Lost Worlds, but then my good old conscience strode in, punched the clock and told me in no uncertain terms that any writing on THOSE subjects should be to an eventual editorial end, and put the cap on it.
\nRighto, thought I, I shall do what I\u2019ve been meaning to do, write something about the exhibition coming up in Saint-Ursanne, but the official site is way ahead of me.
\nThere\u2019s a couple of local historical themes I\u2019ve been meaning to touch on I mused, about imprisoned kings and forlorn campaigns a couple of centuries ago. One of those would be worth doing, but the muse had been talking shop with my conscience and that too was that.
\nOr maybe my preface for this fall\u2019s Beowulf would stand in for me, but then I chickened out and decided not to pester the editor so far ahead of publication date.
\nOr a comment on the sudden realization that I completely missed my mid-life crisis and that if I want to still have one I better damn well hurry up, but then thought no, too busy for that, perhaps I can postpone it a decade and thus live to be a hundred and eleven.
\nOr something on the nature of angels, which has been just on the edge of vision for a long time. (Angels fly because they take themsleves lightly – how I wish THAT little phrase was mine and not borrowed from a more eloquent source.)
\nOr something more practical: Standing in the Ends of Rainbows For Dummies. A manual on the creative use of meteorology for romantics incurable, but not seeking medication thank you.
\nThen I thought, how about something simple, like or rocket science or the global repartition of gabbroic strata, but then I thought nah, too easy.
\nI dwelt briefly on the possibility of a short resum\u00e9 of eternity, (but only briefly).
\nMayhap the Minor Mishaps of Life in the studio; the Incident of the Tilting and Toppled Palette and the interesting inkmarks that now individualize my best jeans, or the Final Gasp of my trustworthy airbrush (may it rest in peace, wherever it is that airbrushes go), the brief \u201cwhy me?\u201d moment, followed by the unexpected joy of actually finding a distributor here in Switzerland, which restored my confidence in the law of probabilities, at least for the time being. But who wants to hear about that?
\nOr my stack to mail, which I had reduced to nothing with such application and diligence, but which is now several inches high again. (I swear letters breed like rabbits when the lights are out.)
\nBut none of those do a newsletter make.
\nSo, in the end, I\u2019ve decided not to write a newsletter.
\nNevertheless, given that the secret to achieving one\u2019s goals relies largely on the lowering of one\u2019s expectations until you literally trip over the summit you set out to scale, it looks like I\u2019ve got one anyway.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
EARLY BIRD<\/strong> <\/p>\n
\nOne of the merits of arising before the sun (one of the few merits, actually) is that you can be wherever the sun is headed at about the same time. Despite my earlier musings (and for lack of those bumper stickers, at which I draw the line anyway) I did not manage to pull off the road (no shoulder, tailgating semi-trailers, you know the problems of the great-views-glimpsed-from-behind-the-wheel) for the most beautiful views, but managed these:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/2007.06.05-Tree1-port.jpg\" "\\"2007.06.05-Tree1-port\\"")
<\/a><\/td>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/2007.06.05-Tree2-port.jpg\" "\\"2007.06.05-Tree2-port\\"")
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<\/a><\/td>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/2007.06.05-Tree4-port.jpg\" "\\"2007.06.05-Tree4-port\\"")
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