I was watching “Any Given Sunday” with Al Pacino and Dennis Quaid because I was trying to figure out with which movie I had confused it. And then I sat on the remote and I am now watching a Ken Burns special on Mount Desert which I think is a part of a series on National Parks. Yes, that is what it is: National Parks and I am no longer seeing stuff about Mount Desert. Most times I would enjoy watching a documentary on National Parks and Stephen Mather’s push for a national park system, but right now watching this educational program is striking chords in my nervous system on a par with sitting through a Cotton Mather sermon. So I am going back to Pacino and Quaid and perhaps mind rot.

Oh, wait, now we get gossip: Mather had mental problems and “was sent to an asylum” outside of Baltimore. He had had his first breakdown in 1903 and three subsequent episodes had been prevented from escalating by trips to the wilderness of national parks. So, what about Mather and this fourth onset – did he get better or not? Okay, now they are talking about Mt. McKinley and in a filmed clip, an oldtimer explorer said the mountain had the “Heart of an Old Whore”.

Bears! There are bears pictured. I see no cows, though. Mostly I think the scenery and inspiration of the land and the talk of wealthy people are just asking me to be more than I feel like being at this moment. On the phrase “power elite” I click over to Pacino and Quaid. Sometimes you just have to tie one on.