My needs are simple.

I don't know what moron invented the idea that one's life should HAVE to be a quest for a continually grander existence rather than a peaceful, simple life, but they sure have helped further a lot of miserable lives.

I look out over my "domain", and look towards the setting Texas sun and I see all that I could ever want or need, right where I am at. A wonderful family. A community that KNOWS the meaning of the word "community", a house that holds strong against the bitter winter winds, and a back porch that's gonna be the subject of my screening in makeover and the installation of a hammock as soon as the budget can bear it.

I'm not writing this to knock the ambitious sorts, mind you. Many folks thrive on the competition and the rewards that their material pursuits net them. And that's OK. For THEM. But it's not the life I choose to lead, and, in fact, it is the life I have diligently tried to escape ever since Thoreau's words of "quiet desperation" struck me during my personal awakening some 12 years back.

And so, as you're sitting in the smog en route to a job you've worked so hard at, into which you've poured your passion, I commend you. You are needed. I only hope it's a life with which you've found some peace.

If not, I'd invite you to come out and take a gander at a Texas sunset.

Sincerely,

Gideon MacLeish