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The whole place has a desolate quality that wasn't here earlier. The sky is heavily overcast. Now. precisely now as I pause after writing the last sentence, a fiery scarlet tanager lands close in front of me — a splash of brilliance under the gray sky. Behind him. through puffs of white fog, is Blue Grass, Va. and surrounding farms, whence come sounds of hammering, cars, sheep and cattle. From here, it is fertile looking land. Beyond the grassy valley are layers of dark ridges and white clouds. 1 know what you're ihinking. Sure, it’s good for me to •Jpend some time alone in the woods once in a while. But why go to such a faraway, isolated, lonely place? Why not Mary's Rock? Why by myself on the mountain called Devil’s Backbone, where people might expect to find copperheads, danger, ... maybe the Devil himself for all 1 know.
No, Peace is what I find here, and God's work is more apparent in this undisturbed kind of place than anywhere. And it's not lonely. Down there is all of humanity, spread out in the valley, and I am part of it. It’s just that from here, I have a nice perspective. From here, I can at least try to figure things out. From there, amid all the confusion, there's no chance.
Peace.
Saturday, July 17
Devil’s Backbone
Highland County, Va. Dear Tom.
This is the start of a twoweek vacation. I thought of inviting you and Ali, in case you might be able to join me here, but really needed a couple of days to myself for
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