August 19th 2009

    In the genes I have found those qualities which produce a body which when now exposed to sun takes on the appearance of what I will call 'red blotchiness'.   It is a most unappetizing vision and all I can say is that many years ago sun produced healthier shades in me.

    'Red blotchiness' in skin excites those parts of the medical profession who earn their living in the field of dermatology.  It is I suppose that same triumphal sound dentists hear when a person announces a toothache.  A delightful opportunity for the application of precisely engineered devices and dubious wisdom.  

    For many a gardener, that same sound may be a potato rain in spring, or a thunderstorm in summer, or an agricultural equipment show in Louisville.  For me, and I have to admit it, that same sound is more soothing when I know I have ground to dig.  So I wonder at the relationship between 'red blotchiness' and the feel of a moving shovel.

    I have used a long handled round point shovel in the Sinai.  I have used it on summer beaches.  I have used it in Caribbean Islands.  I have even used it to move coal and gravel.  I have double trenched in that earnest way for those who paid me, and who were watching.   And here in the USA where often the sun is strong I have used the long handle round point shovel sometimes for the joy of it.  

    In that same time I have learned to wear socks in the winter,  I have learned to wear a hat in the summer, and I have learned to wear a long sleeved shirt both winter and summer.  

    It is true, I can feel the ancestors sniggering as they peer at me from those places where they may still have their being.  But when they see gloves on a hot sunny day I imagine it'll be their time to gather children for a demonstration of that consequence to not dying young or with courage.  

    I see this as an opportunity for me to show off a little.  Teach those little urchins a lesson by wearing the sort of gloves Fagin apparently used to wear. 

tim candler

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