I'd buy a decent sized ranch near my hometown, but I wouldn't raise any animals. I'd have a garden and use much of it to make my own salsa each year. I'd grow lots of herbs and then dry the extra to give to friends and family. I'd have a cold smoke house so I could make salami, pepperoni, and other hard sausages. My dad could keep his bees on my ranch and we'd build a little work house where he could keep his equipment and spin and bottle honey each autumn. The fence at the roadside would be made of stone and somewhere along it would be a plaque with Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" because I don't think most people think it means what I think it means. The house would be specially built so that it'd truly be mine.
I'd pay the mortgages on my parents' and grandparents' houses so they'd have one less money thing to worry about. I'd help one brother pay for grad school and, if he wanted it, beyond. I'd help the other one with his art in any way I could. My cousins, who want to go to college, would be able to go, on certain conditions, of course. Future nieces and nephews would be buried in books and would have trusts for when they're old enough.
I'd spend my days reading and writing and riding my mower around the place. I'd go to New York City once a year and drown myself in the plays on and off Broadway. Once a year I'd travel out side of the US, starting with England and Tintagel to see where people say Arthur reigned. From there, the whole world until I've at least walked a mile on each continent.
I'd support charities that battle for first amendment rights. I'd support charities that are trying to bring vaccines and other treatments to the world. I'd support people's rights to vote. And I'd rage against the war machine so much of this world has become.
I'd do these things, that is, if I were a rich man.
2 comments:
I'd like to have some free herbs and borrow comic books from you...=)
-wings
I'd be happy to, wings.
Blog Dog, most of the interpretation of "Mending Wall" I'm heard or read have to do with the confusion of the speaker and the ironic use of the phrase "Good fences make good neighbors." And anyone who's read too much Frost knows that he likes to make his ironic statements. I understand that, but to me the poem is also about getting neighbors together to accomplish something, even if it's only once a year to rebuild a wall. The poem implies that the neighbors don't see each other at anytime except when they're rebuilding. Perhaps, even with the supposed insanity of a fence separating apple trees and pine trees a good fence can make good neighbors by bringing them together.
And that's how I interpret it differenet from other people.
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