Dogs in Thimphu
3. Don’t live for an audience. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” I begin my first blog entry with these two quotes. The first is from a list of ten “rules” I wrote for myself one early morning on the Heathrow Express, returning from having said goodbyes to all of my family back in Connecticut and New York, and on my way to saying goodbyes to all of my dear friends in London. Ten rules, a pep talk of sorts, reminders to shore myself up for the challenges of the coming year, the coming future. The second, of course, is the famous closing couplet from Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” a favorite quote of mine and of many other English teachers. I begin with this because in some way I think these sentiments are the best introduction to the first anecdote of my wanderings through the internal and external world. So, before I begin this first entry and thus this blog in general, I should offer a caveat