Old family pictures 009 
  Originally uploaded by Wordyeti.

I am told that I get my contemplative nature from my great-grandfather; that he was regarded as a deep and careful thinker.

You can see him here in this photo that we scanned in last Christmas, stalking, deep in thought, head bent down in concentration.  The blurred object in the lower right corner is either a cat with the stiffest and straightest tail I have ever seen, or some kind of farm implement.

He died long before I was born. But this photo, taken as a snapshot with an old Brownie camera, speaks volumes about his character. I wonder why he was wearing a garter on his right arm. Where was he going, walking so fast (a characteristic that I have – mainly because of my long legs – people tend to have to scurry to keep up with me).

I’d like to think that he was soft-spoken and kindly; that his downcast eyes were indicative of keeping an eye on uneven ground, rather than stooped shoulders from feeling as though life had beaten him down… I am coming to realize how unique it is these days to have grown up in an honest-to-God rural setting. So few people do anymore. Something like 1% of the US population lives/works on farms… what a tectonic shift.