If you will tell me why the fen
appears impassable, I then
will tell you why I think that I
can get across it if I try

-Marianne Moore’s I May, I Might, I Must

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

-Carl Sandburg’s Chicago

A ship, like a human being, moves best when it is slightly athwart the wind, when it has to keep its sails tight and attend its course. Ships, like men, do poorly when the wind is directly behind, pushing them sloppily on their way so that no care is required in steering or in the management of sails; the wind seem favorable, for it blows in the direction one is heading, but actually it is destructive because it induces a relaxation in tension and skill. What is needed is a wind slightly opposed to the ship, for then tension can be maintained, and juices can flow and ideas can germinate, for ships, like men, respond to challenge.

-From James Michener’s Chesapeake