Here is a picture of the visual layer of my mind directly before writing this: I looked up, and suddenly the sky and the courthouse and the sunlight and the birds we all alive and vibrating. Two girls walked by and I gave them my most mischievous smile, and one of them smiled back. I thought about those birds, sailing through the light, free- their habitat in our decorative trees. Yes, we would die without those trees, as surely as they would. I thought about their wisdom and their patience.