Captains; staying in touch; happiness; pruning rosemary

TODAY'S DATE:

Is it a week yet?

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Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
       Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
       For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
       I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
       My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
       Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
       Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
       How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
       I am the captain of my soul.

"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. © Public domain

Note:

For a major part of my life

I believed this.

But it was never quite right

for me.

Now I see

that without my friends

including my striving wife

- a sustaining cloud all,
over all - uber alles -

The One who assembled them

for me

I would be captain of nothing.

 June 29th

I sit at my computer screen

and turn the camera at myself

and pick up this image.

It shows the cross of 

cement nails I once (1970s) brazed together

hanging backwards on my

healed sawed-up chest.

I wear it backwards

because I  lately like to see the backside

of things pertaining to me

Me, me, me

I wear an old red shirt

I slept in last night

on it a loose tie is painted

in quick blue strokes

the dull beaded chain

harks to 1958, US Army -

my dog-tag chain.

It still holds;

the tag is in my desk drawer,

not jammed into a battlefield jaw

quite yet

~

ON STAYING IN TOUCH 
with ex-US Marine Stu Tolbert

..............................
A New Yorker Cartoon
6-27-12

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JUST WALKING THROUGH THE SQUARE
MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS
IN A HAPPY TOWN....

from ZAN


PLAY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg&feature=share

[FOR LT et al]
..........................

Optimism
Many batches of rosemary
potatoes
coming right up
(OK, maybe not RIGHT up)
....................

Editorial comment by Thomas Friedman

from Sunday NY Times 7-1-12: