ok, so our keyboard at home has ceased to work on a reliable basis, which explains the numerous run-on words that pop up from time to time in this blog......i found myself last night pounding the space bar to get it to 'space'...quite frustrating when one must wait at least 1 second between words to get an the requisite distance between words to make them suitably readable......

book club was last night...a record crowd......to discuss lewis and clark book undaunted courage.....lots of pontificating about bravery, vision, selflessness....while all that may be so, i found some statements made by my friends to be somewhat disturbing....for example, the statement was made that the indian lifestyle was idyllic until l&c brought siphyllis (sp), whiskey, guns, measles, etc. the reality was that indians were tribal, and frequently fought each other long before l&c showed up....to become a man an indian adolescent must prove himself in battle as well as on the hunt....certain indian tribes already had crazy mixed up morality standards when it came to sex with non-spousals..... (see blogs before trip to spain). the notion that indians were nice people messed up by the white man is quite naive.....anyway, we had good banter helped along by wine, and then coffee to wash down apple pie.....next month the book club meets at my house to discuss my book pick, j. austin's persuasion.....a timely piece about courtship, marriage, and love.....i have been thinking about these issues ever since hearing about the divorce of a centre couple that we have known (distantly) for years and years.....what keeps a couple together and what drives them apart? the couples present last night have been together 20+ years, with only 1 exception......i have known them, for the most part, during the entire 20+ years.....i would be devastated if any of them decided to break up and the wife move to philedelphia......