A man who carries a cat by the tail learns a lesson he can learn in no other way.”
— Samuel Clemens
More than a decade ago, I became close to one of my doctoral professors in Oregon who was semi-obsessed with both quoting and drawing Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens. Despite growing up near Hannibal, MO, where ole’ Sam was raised, I didn’t know much about the man himself. I have since read several books about him, and this summer my son, best friend, my best friend’s daughter and I toured the far-too-expensive-but-famous Mark Twain Cave. It was $25.00 a pop!
I still paid it.
While treading the path of generations before me, peering down dark tunnels I was criminally tempted to explore independently, attempting to read the many candle-smoked names burnt into ancient limestone walls, and running my fingers along glacial-compressed crevices, I couldn’t decide if I was more fascinated by the people I was touring the cave with, the people who had been there before me, or by what I felt it all meant — experience often dictates a life, and the desire to experience explains it all.
Album I am listening to: Shovels and Rope’s “By Blood.”