Poem

Sometimes, when I read a poem or see a piece of art, something touches me in a way words can't express. This is one of those times.

The Evening Is Tranquil, and Dawn Is a Thousand Miles Away

by Charles Wright

The mares go down for their evening feed

into the meadow grass.

Two pine trees sway the invisible wind—

some sway, some don’t sway.

The heart of the world lies open, leached and ticking with sunlight

For just a minute or so.

The mares have their heads on the ground,

the trees have their heads on the blue sky.

Two ravens circle and twist.

On the borders of Heaven the river flows clear a bit longer.

From: The New Yorker

China

I usually don't read articles about the global economy... This article about China caught my eye:

Back in 2001 when the International Olympic Committee chose Beijing as the site of this summer’s games, the event was meant to mark China’s debut as a player on the global economic stage. But a recent study by the economist Angus Maddison projects that China will become the world’s dominant economic superpower much sooner than expected - not in 2050, but in 2015.

I had long since known that China holds a lot of Treasury Bills and that roughly coincides with the U.S. turning a blind 'civil rights' eye toward them but the idea of China being the next economic super power is a surprise to me. Perhaps I need to read more current events...