Where are you now?

I often quote Ram Dass who advised us all in 1971 to Be Here Now. It's a straightforward philosophy, in spite of the fact that it's not so easily executed.

For the last few weeks of summer, I give you an updated version of the same notion from one of America's greatest poets, Wendell Berry.

The Vacation

BY WENDELL BERRY

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.

He went flying down the river in his boat

with his video camera to his eye, making

a moving picture of the moving river

upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly

toward the end of his vacation. He showed

his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,

preserving it forever: the river, the trees,

the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat

behind which he stood with his camera

preserving his vacation even as he was having it

so that after he had had it he would still

have it. It would be there. With a flick

of a switch, there it would be. But he

would not be in it. He would never be in it.

It occurs to me that I've already given you this poem earlier this year. If so, I can only say this might be a good time to re-read it. Good is good. You have a few weeks left of summer. Be there. Don't waste a minute of your life.