Another great day in the desert, and not just because my streak of cribbage wins continues. Judy found a local coffee shop a few blocks away. We joined a mostly young hipster crowd, stood in line patiently, and Judy enjoyed her exotic choice of a Horchesso Latte, which smacked her taste buds with sweet cinnamon and sugar melded with strong coffee. We met our friends, the Kral's at Tanias '33' Mexican Food for lunch before we caught the free trolley car for our tour of downtown. We exited the trolley at the University of Arizona campus. We walked a little bit, but the campus is so huge it seemed to sprawl like a small city. We'll go back for a more directed tour before we leave here. And to top the day off, we listened to an interview on the PBS Newshour of Apolo Ohno who left us inspired with his adroit explanation of the mindset of Olympic athletes. He quoted the middle stanza of a poem that Douglas Malloch wrote as a boy. It's worth repeating, and certainly worth considering:
Good timber does not grow with ease
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
We live in a time of strong winds. Some blow hard and many tear at foundations. It behooves us to stand tall and strong like good timber. Like Cannonball Adderly said to preface his song, Walk Tall, "There's a lot of funky stuff going down, but the storm doesn't really matter until the storm begins to get you down, so my advice to you is 'Walk Tall', 'Walk Tall'." In the the meantime, it's in our best interest to realize that regardless of our circumstance, life is good, especially today.
Art shot of the day: Look for the sunshine.
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