Thinking about a Kindle

I love my bookshelves, the stance of titles gathered into fiction or poetry, theology and non-fiction. So much so that I put up with the dust and valuable storage space in our small house. I am thinking of buying a Kindle reader if I do I will be a late comer, but an intentional one. Nothing can replace the satisfaction I enjoy with a good book. I read online but only short blogs and essays, never at length.

The idea of purchasing and reading book via the Kindle has certainly made me think about that fact that my library would stop growing. So her is my list:

Against

#1. The love of an actual book with pages you turn.

#2. I don't want my library to stop growing (I actually want to need more shelves.

For

#1. books are mostly under 10 bucks

#2. They download in one minute.

#3. Free dictionary to look up words as they are read (instant on page definition).

#4. Free ESV Bible download.

#5. Over 1000 blogs available with rss feed.

#6. Newspapers like WS journal on your Kindle every morning.

Well my list is obviously stacked in the For category, but the weight of # 1 and 2 against may have alot of weight for me. I havn't made my mind up yet. I wish I could just test drive one.

haggardly

Fiddles, steele guitar beer and Merle Haggard. Bakersfield has always been a great place at night. Sun light hours are traditionally full of Ag and oilfields, but paychecks have to be spent and bottles don't pour them selves, so Merle back in town is a great time. Beth and I saw him tonight at Buck Owen's Crystal Pallace with my folks. Great time, great tunes. Keep away from that Kern River.

Solitude

Years before, I performed well in the appreciation of a simple quiet. In truth, isolation. A week would pass without words. Winter with it's silencing effect used the snow of the Sierra Nevada mountains to insulate footsteps and voices, a gentleness nearly unknown to me now. I spent many months in those woods. Locked in them as it may have been with a fine and somehow redeemable solitude."The wine of youth" one writer said. This solitude, such wilderness as virtue.

I embraced this for years, Strongly.

After the mountains it became the length of days at sea. The Us Navy gave me a rack on a ship and its library treasured old novels from Melville and Richard Henry Dana which kept me awake during long hours on watch. Men of great solitude. Men of rigor and brute spirituality. Labor here was virtue, quick and decisive. Somehow though, when you are prayerfully set against the quiet hum of engines below decks it was never enough, like hymns waiting finally for a greater expression.

The house is quiet except for the dog at rest with her loud respiratory problem. Past midnight. The wine finished and chores left for tomorrow. Tonight my wife is in a Monterrey hotel on business, and by now the vessels off the California coast have set darken ship at sea and small animals scurry to gather for winter in much higher elevations. I sit happy to be without the past and all of it's vacancies thinking now exclusively of my wife who I miss desperately even before one solitary night has us apart.

Austin Lucas

I cannot keep my ipod charged long enough to keep up with Austin Lucas. Austins fiddle, banjo, ukulele and an acoustic guitar are a brilliant mixture for backwoods folk-spiritual and bluegrass music on moonshine. It is not a country sound but something more akin to a lost in the woods. Put on a flannel shirt, build yourself a front portch, sit down with a beer and listen.

movement not action

There is quaking and violent silence more expressive than a noonday in Manhattan. It is strange in is stillness that you can only employ words which seem to express violence and chaos to describe the slow moment. I have spent many months at sea and would stare out into the morning fluorecents trying to listen and it seemed unbelievable that such a sight wouldn't give up a sound. Or the sun demonstrating it's effect behind the veil cloud. You would stay if you could, you would close your mouth as to not offend and sober suddenly because of the natural collision of the ocean with light. The Sierra mountain crests are similar in their ability to disturb you with humility and conscience. The Canyon, the Shenandoah Valley, driving an old Ford from the north down Hwy 1.

There are easy reasons why real estate is expensive in these places. The yacht, the cruz, are rewards for the ambitious. Others run away to give themselves to such things. To tents in mountains or to navies. It would be worth it all if we could stand before that moment and remain that quiet and humble man needing only the light on his face and the knowledge of peace experienced. It would be worth it to sell it all or give it all if it would last. It would be worth it if it wasn't already given freely in a place we were not looking.

Maybe if the yard work is done, the hall celing is patched, the plumbing access panel in the bathroom is made and installed, I will get the time to turn a wrench on the bike or possibly wash the car. I love old cars and motorcycles, even my house was built in 48, and the time it takes to keep up with maintenance isn't self indulging but has it own reward for me. The conection with the past, the simplicity of old but strong motors are more interesting to me than new technology (and every thing made in the 50's and 60's has more style). Most people I know have the new house, the nearly service free car and they like it that way. Beth and I don't have childeren and because of that I imagine myself doing very little with excess time if we had a new house which didn't need a kitchen remodel or sprinklers dug up and replaced. These things keep me busy and keep me learning. Example. A sure fire way to learn about motorcycle carburation is to break down on the side of a long empty road with plenty of time, a couple of tools and a folded up Haynes manuel you fourtunatly brought with you.
There is a danger of allowing these things to slip into the past. Of course the old cars and bikes will one day be gone but what happens when our interests are absorbed with the new and convienently replaceable, when men are unwilling or worse unable to fix the problems around the house? Are we still good stewards of our things if we just pick up the phone to have another more capable guy fix it all for us (I do have a pool guy)? I like the idea of having kids and being able to teach them about the value of hard work by actually doing something hard. Might as well learn those lessons on a 68 Triumph. See how well guys can rationalize nearly anything?

The intro:

I wanted a place to do some thinking and leave it all open to comment and criticism. Welcome family, friends and friendly strangers.