It's rainy in the Sunshine State today. Kerr, Jeanna, and I stood on the beach and watched the rainstorm march across the waves until it was slinging droplets into our eyes. We made an impromptu umbrella out of Kerr's bodyboard and watched it rain until we were too cold to bear it any longer and had to run back to the cottage.

It was sunny this morning, and we went with Grandpa Goose (happy birthday Grandpa!) to see Pelican Island, the first (and smallest) National Wildlife Refuge, designated as such by Teddy Roosevelt. One of the information boards along the walk had a quote by Roosevelt: "Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property of the people who are alive today, but the property of unknown generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander." It never occurred to me before to be especially thankful for wildlife or wildland preservation. But it's true, if nobody made an effort to preserve natural wonders, they would be plundered and obliterated as fast as historic or artistic wonders. Hundreds of sublime sites we would know of only from the pages of history.

Before we left for Florida I fished out a collection of stories by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges from a skyscraping stack of books on Kent's desk. I'm rediscovering what a very bizarre and paradoxical imagination the man had. He has many of the trademark postmodern obsessions - mirrors, mazes, labyrinths, subjectivity, and self-creation - and he does the oddest, and coolest, things with them. Reading him, I'm reminded of something John, Kent and I discussed last week -  that philosophers create systems the way artists create artworks - becaus they enjoy creating and appreciate the aesthetic value of the product. Conviction need not have anything to do with it. That's precisely the way Borges works. The only convictions I find emerging from his hypotheses, witty and elaborate as they are, are these: that the world is complicated and Christianity a fraud.

I've also discovered a good occupation for whiling away hours of travel. Memorization. During the twelve hours from North Carolina to Florida I memorized half the Nicene Creed and part of the exquisite "this England" speech from Richard II.

Pool party tonight! Anyone wanna come? :)