The Liberty to Study Poetry
On the eve of Independence Day, John Adams reminds us that the deepest love plants trees whose shade it will never feel. Writing from Paris in the middle of a war, he vowed to spend his life on “politics and war” so his sons could study science — and their children, one day, could be free to study poetry. It is the same quiet labor of every grandparent who hopes to leave something finer than they were handed. Come sit a while and consider the inheritance you are building, and the one you received.