Chautauqua, Boulder, CO

Was on vacation for a few days here, staying in a cabin, hiking, and reflecting less and less on work and daily concerns and more about what used to be called "existential choice," mine, of course, but also how it might be possible to help others with theirs. Think of all the ordinary people, and especially teachers and seekers after community and culture who trekked to Chautauqua to hear the booming voice of Billy Sunday or Williams Jennings Bryant. Today it  could be be blogging  or some series of  meet-ups that might draw a community together into movement.  Think of all the people over the last century who wandered in the hills here, alone and in small groups, dreaming some larger dream. Then back to a small town in Texas, maybe, and a one room school house, to teach Latin or whatever it might have been. I imagined walking in the hills with some person who has the capacity to make a big difference.  The moment of existential choice is the most interesting part (to me) of what we call philanthropy. H. Peter Karoff sees it that way too, I think, which maybe is why he afflicts his readers with poetry, whether they can stand it or not.  Maybe he should have taken up the guitar.