Some people (including James Wolcott) put Ralph Waldo Emerson at the top of the list of America's greatest writers. Read his journals and you'll see why: Emerson talking to himself outshines even the greatest of today's bloggers with apparent ease.
Which is why, on this day, the occasion of my youngest daughter's 18th birthday, I'm going to cheat and steal from the best.
The whole code of nature's law may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring. The whirling bubble on the surface of a brook admits us to the secret of the mechanics of the sky.
Thanks Ralph!
And here's a picture of Emily on vacation in Turkey, to show the necessity of such cheating.
