If you don't go far enough back in memory,
or far enough ahead in hope,
your present will be impoverished.

Ed Lindaman¹

I

Tuco and Arlu were talking about nature.
Tuco had said there wasn't any nature any more.
It was all tended now...  just a huge park.

Arlu stared at him.
He shifted in his chair as he watched her expressive face.
Arlu said, "you're crazy!"
"Everyone is crazy," Tuco replied.
"The trick is figuring out who's got a similar craziness."

Arlu stared at him.
He shifted in his chair as he watched her expressive face.
Her expression turned to puzzlement. Tuco sat
still.

"What do you mean?" she asked.
"About what?" he asked.
"Let's start with the comment about 'tended nature'.
You know how much energy I put into
environmental challenges!?!"

Tuco nodded, looked at her and said, "Yes, I know.
That's tending... salvaging... protecting
what can no longer recover on its own."
Sometimes it was hard for Arlu to admit he was right.

"So," she switches the subject,
"what about 'who's got a similar craziness'?"
He smiled slowly. Watched her sip her hot tea.
"Aren't we a pair, eh?
Saving what is lost without our saving?"

"Consider," he continued, "how simple life would be
if we could just accept what is
and drift with the currents."

"Pretty damn boring," Arlu exclaimed.
Tuco smiled, "exactly!
A crazy duo, remembering.... hoping...
filling our hours... our days, with the blossoms of the past
and the future."

"Simply blessed," he said softly
and smiled. "Crazy blessed!"

Arlu considers her prospects.