








Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a fortress, high, all alone, in the high rocks, with all, everything I needed, a white thick-walled tibetan sort of place curved and presenting no corners, and I would remain here, quietly enduring, from time to time receiving news of a friend or loved one passing away, but remaining here, affected to be sure, at times even weeping, but undisturbed, and with each passing perhaps a thin layer of the outer wall powders away, all my friends, all my family, who make it possible for me to have a fortress in the first place, I’ll outlive them all, naturally, so fortified.
William Theodore Van Doren, SORROW AND SOLACE AT SCOUT MOUNTAIN (Sunset from Scout Mountain, Corydon, Harrison County, Ind.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.
I had come to Indiana, with my brother Steve and our spouses, because my sister, Emily, six years younger, had very unexpectedly died on the 20th. The great, and greatly bereaved, people at Scout Mountain Winery, where she worked part-time, hosted a small party for us, her daughter and some of Emily’s wonderful friends – wonderful to her and to us.
The Substantial and the Insubstantial (Sunset, Tuesday, 27 September 2011)