Three Hundred and One Years Ago

I could have announced a real tricentennial if only I had started to read this book (for the ... tenth? time) in July of last year.

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below. ... The bridge seemed to be among the things that last forever;  it was unthinkable that it should break. The moment a Peruvian heard of the accident he signed himself and made a mental calculation as to how recently he had crossed by it and how soon he had intended crossing by it again."

Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

This well-thumbed paperback has a very early review of the book on it first page noting that "THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY has its setting in Lima, Peru, two centuries ago." 

September Afternoon Visitors

The urban birds of my neighborhood seem to raise their families year round.  I shouldn't have been surprised to see such a young mourning dove outside the window yesterday afternoon, under the watchful eyes of an adult. 

I stopped reading the book in my hands and flipped the pages back to a most appropriate line of writing. 

  " . . . one listens to the mourning dove terracing its sweet calls . . ."

From " On Beauty and Being Just " by Elaine Scarry