On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 7:06 AM, Peter L Borst
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Dear Allen and all
>
> I find it a bit amusing that you mention Carlos Castaneda as a source of
> guidance. His books inspired generations of drug users. Evidently most of
> his ideas were hatched in the library. His path of heart was to be a
> professional wannabe. Sorry.
Peter, you're a killjoy. Yes, he inspired many a peyote-search (I too heard
he never even tried the stuff), but that doesn't mean that everything he
says is without value. I agree with the gist of the romantic passage: Do
what you love. Don't worry about whether it makes you money or if it's
practical.
Let's face it: if we didn't love the bees, who would do it? I have three
hives, my harvest goes into gifts for friends and into my own pantry, and if
I figured the cost per pound, I'd be better off buying from Dwayne Waid at
the Famer's Market. One of my three colonies survived the winter this
year--that means a couple hundred for replacement bees.
But I spent a fragrant hour in the spring sun scraping the deadouts,
examining frames, mourning for the girls who starved scant inches from the
forty-pound cache of honey above their heads, I shook my head at the one
hive that survived, a runt-of-the-litter all summer that I should have
requeened or combined. It's boiling with bees now, bringing in bright orange
and buttery beige pollen. Maybe that colony requeened itself, and the virgin
mated with drones from Dyce or the Arnot Forest bees, and got a few academic
genes in the process.
And next year, for Purim, I'm going to dress my toddler as a bee and put on
my own floppy white suit, the one I've only bothered with for last year's
furious hot hive, and we'll go to parties with Mom as a beekeeper and
toddler as a bee. I'll chase her with a smoker, and answer all the
inevitable questions people ask when they find out I keep bees. And the
first question is always:
"Do you get stung a lot?"
And now I'll have the story of the hot hive to tell them. No peyote
required.
--
*****************************
Lesli Sagan
[log in to unmask]
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