“Ordinary” [Reflections On Charles H. Parkhurst (ed) Portraits And Principles of The World's Great Men And Women, N.Y. : Springfield:The King-Richardson Co. 1899 - #85/100]

He states it’s possible to live
In any context – it will give
A living decent, if we watch,
And think about the local talk –

For in the scuttlebutt about
There’s often rumors (mixed with doubt)
About potentials some have sensed,
Beneath the ground, beyond the fence.

That’s anywhere – low hanging fruit
Is gone for most part – so persist –
It’s up to you – press in, dig down –
With perseverance it’s been found –

Before in other contexts small,
Remote, or desolate – for all
Our world’s indeed a resource base
For human beings – any race.

The part that’s challenge I can see
In what he writes, applied to me,
Is “Laws and methods” now in use
For business-practice – no excuse –

For ignorance in this respect
With a resource-base of Internet;
A wealth of insight – ways and means –
Exist for folks who have not been –

Born into homes of businessmen,
Where atmosphere is “Business” – when
Folks speak of life from point of view
Of business needs and process new.

But “Getting rich” is different from
Extracting life from Earth, which comes
At great expense – low hanging fruit
Is cheaper way to get one’s loot.

So that says, “New community”
Like Valley-life of poetry –
Extracting resource can’t be done
When ’neath the earth the coal-seems run.

Then culture comes around those folks
Whose ways of life, long-held, are smoke
And it mirrors – can’t be practiced here
In context new – that’s more than clear.

Extraction, process, culture new,
Give rise, with time, to point of view
Unique to centers of resource –
That’s “Richness” (re-defined, of course).

Thanks Lord for this.

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