Dirt

Poor Tim Howard. He did not deserve to be on the losing team.. As one commentator put it, "If the US are going out, they are going out on their shields." And kudos to Green, the 19 year old who came off the bench late in the game and scored the team's only goal. Valiant game, guys.

But life goes inexorably on...

Here in semi-rural Santa Rosa, we are surrounded by dirt, dust and dog hair. If one is to continue to put off cleaning, I suppose, like the writing on the back of a car I passed this morning, one must look for the positive sides of dirt.

Something I learned to enjoy about backpacking was getting dirty. You could wear the same clothes for days, and there was no such thing as a bad hair day. You could wash dishes with cold water and some sand. For some reason that doesn't really work when one is at home.

Dirt beats concrete, and good things can be grown in it, like flowers and vegetables and trees. When you think about it, where would we be in a world with no dirt?

Studies show, however, that in order to build resistance to disease, we shouldn't be too vigilant with the disinfectant.

It does feel good, when one can't stand it anymore, to ferret out every last speck of dirt and suck it up in the vacuum cleaner.

And it stays clean for maybe 10 minutes….