And there will come, in time, soft words of comfort, and calm will fall like rain upon the barren countryside...

I've been away.

I haven't gone anywhere, mind you, but that doesn't change the fact that I have, for all intents and purposes, been away.

I've needed some time to think, and the overwhelming need to do that has required me to keep my own counsel, and I haven't had the inclination to share. And, I've had nothing to share, really......the thinking takes up a lot of time and energy.

Nah. Really doesn't.

It's just that I've been in a fog as of late, and I couldn't really write through the fog without playing the same old records again. And even though I like to pull down Old Dan's Records now and then, and dance all night to the 78's....well, the music may be okay for me, but it would be boring for you.

What have I been thinking about?

Well.

I've been re-reading some American History, and I've been feeling a little sorry that a lot of people seem to think that everything that has happened has been a foregone conclusion. Many times in the young life of this country, we have been on the verge of great calamity; and it was only with the pulling together in a common direction that we've managed to pull the Eagle Fat out of the fire and actually get somewhere.

As the old saying goes, "There is no future; only the past happening over and over again. Now."

I think if the country weren't so scared, they'd laugh a little.

The country needs a little laugh.

Now and then.

Now.

Until then, I'll bide my time with a shrinking pile of books on one side, and a growing pile of pizza boxes on the other side. It's my usual cure for the over-thinks.

And disappointment.