God, in His infinite wisdom

Has invented so many things

Like coats, sweaters and umbrellas

To keep my dear son warm and dry

 

And buds for cellphones so that I

Might not hear every word that strangers’

Mothers say to them on the phone

Or listen to cartoon chatter

 

Being fed kids, with canned laughter

But God, in His infinite wisdom

Invented so many other things

Ignorance, denial, and love

 

Of noise and people thinking sort of

That they are the only people

Or family still here? Ah well.

 

Protective clothing scorned, buds not worn.

Perhaps rebellion keeps a boy warm.

— Poem and drawing by William Eaton, though the drawing is based, and rather faithfully, on a Rembrandt drawing. (“I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent!”)

Now available from Amazon: Art, Sex, Politics

In a new, provocative collection of essays, William Eaton, the author of Surviving the Twenty-First Century, shares the pleasures of questions, tastes, reading and more visual arts. “That we are animals, that is as sure as ever. How savagely we behave! And how affectionately rub up against one another. How, desperately, make love?”
Five-star review: “ . . . remarkable collection of essays. . . . insights which carry the reader into a world of mindfulness. One of the pleasures of reading a book by Mr. Eaton is to witness the author peeling away the layers of his stories. His essay concerning “savoring,” for example, first touches on food habits, yet is in fact a call to live with intention; to savor life as one would savor a meal. . . . lovely prose . . . delightful book.”
Kind words about Surviving: “Entertaining, yet packs a quiet intellectual wallop. . . . so thought-provoking and poetic I didn’t want it to end . . . beautiful and wise and moving . . . engaged, non-doctrinaire, well-read, independent-minded. . . . William Eaton finds arresting themes in unusual places. . . . The writing is masterful and wonderfully absorbing.”