October 29, 2004

Progress

Charles Hartshorne (pron. Harts horne) used to live in a house along the six-block walk from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, TX, to the Red River Cafe. His being a process theologian who was the most noted interpreter of Whitehead’s philosophy got him a faculty berth at the University of Texas, Austin.

He was also an ornithologist and wrote a book about it. It is said that he bought his house inside-sight-unseen (and told his wife about it later) because it was by a heavily-wooded creek that’s on the flyway of some kinds of birds.

CP and I made the walk to the Cafe quite a few times these past weeks mostly because of the cook’s skill with oatmeal and poached eggs, the east Texas swing band off-pitch ambiance, and the availability of the New York Times. The route over and back passes underneath magnificent live oaks with great gnarled limbs punctuated by lichen and cantilevered to unimaginable reaches, by a charming little city park, and then across the creek.

The Hartshorne home has recently been razed in favor of what a neighbor called somebody’s “dream house,” now partially finished and daily, courtesy of the builders, contributing its detritus into the flyway creek. Big, coal-black grackles with swallow tails screech and grate their calls as if to signal their protest that “progress” is taking place here.

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