'The end of all method is to seem to have no method at all.'

I put this in for Caitlin, who remarked during our afternoon of coffee shops that she didn't want to see a country like a tourist -- would want to live in it and get a real understanding of the place (or something along those lines).

If I were to now visit another country, I would ask my local companion, before I saw any museum or library, any factory or fabled town, to walk me in the country of his or her youth, to tell me the names of things and how, traditionally, they have been fitted together in a community. I would ask for the stories, the voice of memory over the land. I would ask to taste the wild nuts and fruits, to see their fishing lures, their bouquets, their fences. I would ask about the history of storms there, the age of the trees, the winter colour of the hills. Only then would I ask to see the museums. I would want first the sense of a real place, to know that I was not inhabiting an idea.
--Barry Lopez, 'The American Geographies', About This Life

Spotted a sign this morning :

KID'S CHURCH ON SUNDAYS

and thought it was a little sad that they singled the poor child out by himself (or herself) instead of letting him (her) join in with the rest of the congregation.