Ray was in his usual spot behind the counter, hunched over "Big Bootay," his ancient overclocked gaming PC.

It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game.

When I reached the bar, I ordered a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster from the female Klingon bartender and downed half of it. Then I grinned as R2 cued up another classic '80s tune. " Ãƒ¢Ã¢'¬Ã‹œUnion of the Snake

One should accept things as they are and not try to lift them to impossible heights; only if you let them be will they reveal their true worth.

The pastoral itch to be where "the action is" should be resisted.

To live only for some future goals is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. But of course, without the top you can't have the sides. It's the top that defines the sides.

I am trying to teach my mind to bear the long, slow growth of the fields, and to sing of its passing while it waits.

Spontaneities offer one kind of pleasure and taste of sanctity, repetitions another equally pleasurable and holy.

For we're newcomers at this, with a lot to learn, and not too long to learn it.

What Berry sees in his farm as a form, I see in Scripture as a form. Think of the farm as an organic whole, but with boundaries so that you are aware and stay in touch with all the interrelations: the house and barn, the horses and the chickens, the weather of sun and rain, the food prepared in the house and the work done in the fields, the machinery and the tools, the seasons. There are steady, relaxed rhythms in place.

Story is the most adequate way we have of accounting for our lives, noticing the obscure details that turn out to be pivotal, appreciating the subtle accents of color and form and scent that give texture to our actions and feelings, giving coherence to our meetings and relationships in work and family, finding our precise place in the neighborhood and in history.

Events will take their course, it is no good of being angry at them he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account.