Foundations

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost: that is where they should be.

Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

I really love this quote and I found it to be fitting for the day. It was a usual day on the farm, nothing broke today (I hope I am not speaking to soon!) and finally some sunshine. After a week of wet, windy cold, a day like this is refreshing for body and soul.

My son's birthday is on Sunday, he will be nine. We are having his party tonight so I had to go find a gift for him today. I went to my favorite spot for reading inspiration, the Prairie Bookshop in Mt. Horeb. Looking through all those books made me think about what kind of foundation we are helping our son put under the castles he is building in the sky. How these books we choose for him and the ones he will soon choose for himself will shape who he will become. Since my husband already bought him the newest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," I went for something a little more abstract and imaginary, "The Magician's Elephant." Hopefully he loves both!

I also had the chance to catch up with a good friend while I was in Mt. Horeb, Ed is an historian and every time I meet with him I find myself looking at the past in a new way. He had his wonderful new assistant Julia with him, it was nice to meet her. She has a degree in Anthropology and so working with Ed gives her a great chance to put her education to work. Ed and Julia are working on the Wisconsin Dairy History Project, an effort to capture the stories of how the people of Wisconsin have been shaped by the cows of Wisconsin. If it weren't for Ed I wouldn't know half of what I do about the hard working families who built Wisconsin into the dairy hub of the world.

In today's conversation my Ah-ha moment came from Julia who described her vision of what the study of Anthropology can give us in the present, "the ability to understand each other today". It doesn't all have to be about digging up old civilizations, it can be about understanding why we make the decisions we do and ultimately bringing people closer together. Thanks Julia-very interesting! This made me think about how our past and present must come together if we are to learn from either. It also shows how important it is that we build that foundation based on the knowledge and appreciation for the past if we want to have our castles of the future become real. A great uplifting day, and it will only get better since we are going to see "Where the Wild Things Are" tonight!