Garrison provides a quotation upon Cervantes birthday that is as insightful today as it must have been during his life…

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media
Miguel de Cervantes said, “Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”

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The latest issue of the “News from Vermont” hit my email this morning. Burr talks about “borrowing” as he father liked to put it. I really like the concept.

We’ve been merchants up here at Morse Farm ever since 1966 when my father sold out, lock, stock and milkin’ machine. In his terms, he’d “borrowed” from those cows long enough and was ready to try his hand at “milkin'” the species, Homo Sapiens. Harry Morse loved jokin’ around and always had a good time with the folks who stopped at our place…they laughed off his innuendoes and supported our store generously. Jokin’ around is different these days, though. Certain words and ways that used to be just part of the culture are taboo today, like Harry Morse’s term, “borrowing”. He figured anything renewable, like sap from the maple trees, crops from the soil, or milk from the cows was really just borrowing. Sadly, folks these days are changing the way they think about the “commercialization” of those things.

Borrowing leads to an expectation that you will be returning something. That seems to me to be the epitome of the conservation ethic. Returning to the Earth after you’ve borrowed the use…

Thanks Burr…

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