46\u00a0 bar rises 30.08 0mph N dewpoint 32 Spring<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Moon of Growing<\/p>\n
“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” – George Santayana<\/a> <\/p>\n Santayana liked football, but only practice.\u00a0 While at Harvard, he attended practice faithfully, but never went to a game.\u00a0 His philosophical wisdom has a firm place in American letters though he retained his Spanish citizenship until his death.\u00a0 Here’s a sample of his poetry:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I give back to the earth what the earth gave, As Americans we too often forget our own poets, philosophers and people of letters.\u00a0 We scan back over the literary and artistic output of Western civilization to find exemplars.\u00a0 If we’re truly catholic, we might even include Asia, but how many among us know Santayana?\u00a0 Dewey?\u00a0 James?\u00a0 Emerson?\u00a0 Thoreau?\u00a0 How many have read, say, Moby Dick?\u00a0 Whitman?\u00a0 Emily Dickinson?\u00a0 Even Frost and Sandburg beyond their iconic poems?\u00a0 Willa Cather?\u00a0 Have we heard of Charles Hartshorne?\u00a0 How about Ambrose Bierce?\u00a0 Wallace Stevens?\u00a0 John Dos Passos?\u00a0Sherwood Anderson?\u00a0American\u00a0has produced great artists like Pollock, the Hudson River School painters, John Singer-Sargent and\u00a0Whistler, but again who knows them?\u00a0 Only a few.<\/p>\n This is a failure of American education and of our willingness to learn our own heritage.\u00a0 This is not trivial.\u00a0 A people who do not know where they come from, as Santayana famously said, are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n I will add a brief bio here from time to time of more American persons of belles lettres.\u00a0 Our future depends upon us becoming more than casually acquainted with them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 46\u00a0 bar rises 30.08 0mph N dewpoint 32 Spring \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Gibbous Moon of Growing “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” – George Santayana Santayana liked football, but only practice.\u00a0 While at Harvard, he attended practice faithfully, but never went to a game.\u00a0 His philosophical wisdom has a … Continue reading A Failure of American Education<\/span>
\nAll to the furrow, nothing to the grave.
\nThe candle’s out, the spirit’s vigil spent;
\nSight may not follow where the vision went.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n