A friend of mine asked me why a poem by the Chinese poet Tu Fu is posted on the front of this site, so I thought perhaps others may be curious about that as well. And the answer is that I’ve loved this poem for many years… it’s long been one of my all-time favorites… and it stimulates a kind of merged physical, spiritual, intellectual response in me when I read it.

Thirteen years. There are so many different ways to think about this number. Some people think of it as unlucky. But me… I’ve decided to think about it as a sort of calendar of possible events. A Baker’s Dozen worth of opportunities to experience the world I now inhabit.