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Patience, Patient
Once I was driving for a long time by myself, tediously, as people do when they have to get between two distant points in a country that thinks it is not at war and I was listening to a radio show about how little compassion Americans seem to have, how silent and insular they become before erupting in a firework of bullets. President Obama said I don't think we have a monopoly on crazy people. The woman said she was trying to make a point by banging the loaded shotgun on the floor before blowing off her jaw. Of course we must think about the deer population and terrorists in the wilderness next door as well as the stupidity of most people trying to make a point about rights, etcetera. Then the show ended and some classical music came on which reminded me how long some things can endure, for example a sonata written before radio or this country really existed, how we still find it beautiful. I considered how I could have this thought alone in Ohio, the blank highway a pointless connection between two extremes. Then I paid the toll and drove on.