Enduring Beauty

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  “Beauty is the quality which makes to endure. In a house that I know, I have noticed a block of spermaceti lying about closets and mantel-pieces, for twenty years together, simply because the tallow-man gave it the form of a rabbit; and, I suppose, it may continue to be lugged about unchanged for a century. Let an artist scrawl a few lines or figures on the back of a letter, and that scrap of paper is rescued from danger, is put in portfolio, is framed and glazed, and, in proportion to the beauty of the lines drawn, will be kept for centuries. Burns writes a copy of verses, and sends them to a newspaper, and the human race take charge of them that they shall not perish.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1803–1882).   Essays and English Traits.

signing off

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About 10:30 at night my body shuts down so its off to bed I go. Last night, my darling wife sent me off to bed with a medley of ring-tone serenades. She was setting ring tones in the phone and my approach for our goodnight kiss was greeted by "Irish Eyes Are Smiling." She is really more German, but the effect was cute. We laughed.

After enjoying the moment, she cued up the next tune on the phone list, "Love Me Tender." Oh, how cute, and other such remarks were exchanged.

The next ring tone seranaded us with "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." Awwww.

One final kiss, and I was off to bed . . . to the tune of "The National Anthem".

(If you don't "get" the implications of the last tune, ask an older person about "The National Anthem" and late-night television.)

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