i am not entirely on vacation
sure i am sitting on the porch of a cabin
surrounded by a forest fortress of doug fir
eating yogurt and granola and watching the sun sneak up on me
breathing cool mountain air unpolluted by wifi, bluetooth, or 4g
hiking shoes by the door
drying out from a sweaty day of scrambling over granite
but i am not on vacation
i am trying to figure out if there is an n log(n) way
to sift through the data which is spinning at 7200rpm
somewhere in an enormous data center in the midwest
dizzily waiting for me to come back and take care of it
i know what you are thinking, that i must be
some kind of slightly pathetic,
more than slightly obsessive crazy person
to look out on that vista
and have my thoughts gently waft
towards algorithmic reverie
cinematic sunset glowing in the arizona desert
moonlight illuminating as fog spills like an ocean over coastal hills
birdsong and morning sunlight lilting across mountain lake
we, the slightly crazy ones, we love these,
but we also love in a way we can't explain
the beauty, the overwhelming rightness
new land rising from the depths of chaos
when we finally know how we will write that code
that is also worth taking in, silent and pondering
slow sip of our morning coffee and a deep breath
soaking our souls in the quiet moment when we see it
someplace to stand, and we spoke it into being