If everything were reasonable,
everything would happen for a reason.
Everything isn't reasonable.
There are causes, but some of them elude reason. They just happen.
My right eye isn't reasonable. It just occasionally tears itself up,
like an out-of-control groundskeeper might tear up sod.
When that happens, the doctor sighs, and tries to put the sod back.
I am walking around with gas in my right eye
to keep pressure on the part of the retina patched into place.
Gradually, the gas is absorbed, and ordinary liquid returns.
Yesterday, going into the grocery, I closed the other eye
and could see the line, about halfway up, between the two.
It jiggled, something like a lake with small, choppy waves.
Water everywhere.
We awoke during the night to the sound of thunder,
not immediate, but over the Cities. The rain sounded heavy.
There are no yellow lawns in the Cities this September.
When I picked up the morning newspapers at the door,
the wet prints of the carrier's boots were on the step.
I have wanted to mow the grass at our log house,
but every weather report indicates that it has just rained,
or is, or is about to. I am not eager to mow in the rain.
The Red River, flowing north through North Dakota into Canada,
is being diverted from its normal channel. People built cities
at the river's edge, where all the water is, and where more comes,
so it has become necessary to make the river go away;
or if not go away, at least go flood somebody else.
The ice is melting everywhere from North to South Pole.
I, though, do not believe in climate change, just as I do not
believe in gravity or evolution or Newt Gingrich. It is just that
the ice is melting everywhere, and there is more water now
in the ocean and in the air, and everything is changing.
That's why I have not yet stored our boat for the winter.
If the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers rise about
two hundred feet, I will be ready.
If it ever stops raining, I may mow the lawn while I watch;
one eye on the river valley, and the other on my eye ball.
everything would happen for a reason.
Everything isn't reasonable.
There are causes, but some of them elude reason. They just happen.
My right eye isn't reasonable. It just occasionally tears itself up,
like an out-of-control groundskeeper might tear up sod.
When that happens, the doctor sighs, and tries to put the sod back.
I am walking around with gas in my right eye
to keep pressure on the part of the retina patched into place.
Gradually, the gas is absorbed, and ordinary liquid returns.
Yesterday, going into the grocery, I closed the other eye
and could see the line, about halfway up, between the two.
It jiggled, something like a lake with small, choppy waves.
Water everywhere.
We awoke during the night to the sound of thunder,
not immediate, but over the Cities. The rain sounded heavy.
There are no yellow lawns in the Cities this September.
When I picked up the morning newspapers at the door,
the wet prints of the carrier's boots were on the step.
I have wanted to mow the grass at our log house,
but every weather report indicates that it has just rained,
or is, or is about to. I am not eager to mow in the rain.
The Red River, flowing north through North Dakota into Canada,
is being diverted from its normal channel. People built cities
at the river's edge, where all the water is, and where more comes,
so it has become necessary to make the river go away;
or if not go away, at least go flood somebody else.
The ice is melting everywhere from North to South Pole.
I, though, do not believe in climate change, just as I do not
believe in gravity or evolution or Newt Gingrich. It is just that
the ice is melting everywhere, and there is more water now
in the ocean and in the air, and everything is changing.
That's why I have not yet stored our boat for the winter.
If the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers rise about
two hundred feet, I will be ready.
If it ever stops raining, I may mow the lawn while I watch;
one eye on the river valley, and the other on my eye ball.
.
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