My wife and I are having an early Valentine's get-away in Myrtle Beach, after passing through the Corridor of Shame, which reminds me of the plight of the poor in the region where we lived for four years. I had a column published in the Asheville paper calling for less of the me-me attitude in the USA, a greater emphasis on positive news in the media and greater civility in politics.

Good news, a drop in the unemployment rate, this time to 8.3, much too high but better.

Found good books at the Goodwill again: Hemi, the Mule, a really delightful book for kids, Introduction to Zen Buddhism, by D.T. Suzuki, and Shaman: The Wounded Healer, by Joan Halifax.

Heard Obama's speech at the prayer breakfast in DC on TV. He emphasized the importance of taking positive action on religious principles. For sure.

Linda and I hope to see Hugo and/or the Artist this weekend and go down to the ocean, which I have not seen in ages. It can be very healing to walk beside the ocean. The mountains are great, but so is the ocean!

We may enter into a rent-to-own agreement w/our tenant in our house in Kingstree. We can't seem to sell it, or haven't been able to in three years.

I have been worrying about healing a relationship and am beginning to think that the healing must happen within me first if there is to be movement forward in the relationship.

Found another publisher to submit my poetry book to. This one is in Georgia. Since much of my poetry is set in the South, perhaps this will add to the appeal and appropriateness of the submission. We'll see.

The Super Bowl. I may skip it altogether.

Some good things happening in Asheville: the possibility of music collaboration and some progress in forming an I Ching group.

A good day, overall. We are camped out in Holiday Inn w/Cracker Barrel next door.

Oh, I noticed that when we visited our town for four years, Kingstree, SC, that people we knew seemed more open, sharing hugs w/us, etc. Is that a typical thing to happen after being away? Living in a small Southern town afflicted w/poverty and racism can be stressful to all concerned and when you are "inside the fishbowl," so to speak, perhaps people become more closed off and wary, but when you leave and come back the tension seems to be eased. I don't completely understand this phenomenon. 

Best to my OS friends.