I really need a break

Whenever I'm unable to begin a project, particularly one I have dreaded for months, paralyzed by some kind of ennui, I'll find myself wandering the halls or going for walks around the White House or to Draper's; sometimes I feel the pressure of this city bearing down on me.

Even though he had events of greater import than my newsletters in mind, Auden's words nonetheless keep coming to me as I sit in meetings, or stare at my computer screen: "The situation of our time surrounds us like a baffling crime."

Maybe I'll go hiking in the mountains this weekend for a little liberation theology.

[Edit: Dave reminded me, I think not for the first time, that there is a scandalous Auden work that crops up at book auctions from time to time called The Platonic Blow. Well, well. I can only hope it is better than its predecessor, The Socratic Grope.]