There are many men and women I admire, many I don’t.  The ones I do have certain distinct and definable qualities.  They are the same characteristics I find in these Southern Highlands where I grew up and where I live.  This land has strength, purpose, permanence, simplicity, intimacy, infinity, elegance, and grace.

These qualities are not static, as their intensities may expand and contract.  Nor are they mutually exclusive, as their boundaries may and do cross.  They are the same values I find in friendship.  They make a lasting marriage.  I embrace them in the last mile to the top.  I hear them in good music.  I feel them in good writing.  I see them in fine art.