What Would Thoreau Say?

I've decided there are two kinds of intelligence (probably way more, but I'm not intelligent enough to know more):  book intelligence and street intelligence.  I was one of those guys that had street intelligence.  And my street intelligence was so intelligent I hung out with all the book intelligent kids so everyone thought I was book intelligent too. You following me? I did the same thing in sports.   Two of my best friends in high school were captains of the football team.  And  my girlfriend was captain of the cheerleaders.  So I was always seen, years later, as one of the football stars at Ossining High School.. Which means I was street intelligent in football too, cause I sucked at football.  Not so-so;  not pretty good;   sucked.  Twenty four karat sucked. Now basketball and baseball?  I could hold my own there.  But football? Arm-grabber extraordinaire... stay as far away from getting my ass ...

"Your first task is to find the place where your soul is at home" Marsalis Ficino-15th century philosopher (I know you have all his albums)  You're tired, I'm sure, of hearing me write about my home, The Hermitage (TH).  It's hard to explain why it's so important to me, but one way to think about it is I've never felt so attached to a building or community as I have to this small former slave cottage in the historic district of one of Virginia's oldest little towns. I've always needed my places to be me.  I once said TH was decorated in 'early American Aschermann.' What I meant by that was each room was full of my stuff, collected over the ages, meaning 65 years. It has always been important to me to be comfortable in my surroundings. I used to take as much time decorating my office as any apartment I ever had.  Somehow I worked better when I was somewhere that made me comfortable and happy. As you enter you get lots of history ...