Winter Leaves But Wisdom Stays

On my way to work the other day I looked up and saw that there were still some maple leaves on some of the trees on the street on the way to my bus stop. With the miracle of my cell phone camera I snapped this photo as I so loved the sun shining through the yellow leaves against the dark branches and blue sky. It's at these moments that I realize how much I have been influenced by a poem I learned as a child. Here it is:
Time to Stop and Stare
What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep, or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
--  William Henry Davies 1871 - 1940

I remember learning this at age 7 when we had to memorize some poem for some English literature study we did while being home schooled. Of course, that was back when my mind was blotting paper soaking up new things avidly, not like it is now when the Random Access Memory program occasionally fails due to the  Information Uptake plugin software being "overloaded."   Or at least, that's how it now feels when I have to learn some new text -- it's just too hard to do. But at the least, all the words I've taken in, have had an effect and have lead me to action.  So it's just as well I read the Bible then or I'd probably be a real mess by now.

Damn the Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead!

Not far from where I work is Farragut Square that I stumbled into today and snapped a shot of ole Admiral David Farragut, the guy who apparently said, "Damn the torpedoes, Full Speed ahead," during the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War. I looked him up on the Internet of course -- as who has encyclopedias in their houses anymore? Sure enough, Wikipedia gave me all I needed. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy and is the guy who said this all-American type phrase. His statue had some pigeons napping on his feet and walking on the four cannons pointed in all four directions at the park visitors.  No-one who walked by appeared to notice him in the afternoon sun and he seems to stand there, at least thirty foot high, but invisible.. The statue faces towards the White House and I wonder what they think of him there, if they think of civil war at all. ..