Kids

In which I have children over and discover I do not own one plastic cup or plate. Abby is acting like a deer in the last picture, if anyone is wondering. Maybe a wild deer, too.

Lake

Again. But how can I help it?

Freedom!

While editing a piece for our newsletter on the liberal arts, I was struck how skewed a view of freedom we have today.
Consider this definition of the liberal arts:

The liberal arts are the learned habits of thought and speech considered essential for a free man.

This is completely foreign to modern man. Why would any habits of thought and speech be essential to a free man?
I think it's because we're born fit to be slaves. For our very survival, someone else will have to tell us what to do and when to do it and how to do it, or we'll just lie in bed late and go hungry, or take to stealing, I suppose. But a free man can look beyond immediate wants for the greater good, and govern himself, and stay generally out of debt, jail, and starvation.

Today freedom is equated with self-service, whereas I think it used to be self-governance.

Concert

July 7, Marymoor Park, Redmond, WA

The extra-neat thing about seeing Alison Krauss and Union Station was getting to see the man-behind-George-Clooney's-face sing "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" without George Clooney's face. He's the one on the far left of the picture. They didn't allow cameras into the park, or I would have tried for a picture of the outdoor concert.