Because it's like this

Last Sunday I met Cat at Whole Foods. Cat is one of Elizabeth Mosier's two beautiful, artful daughters, and she had questions for me—questions about the writing life, the reading life, the remembered life.  Noting that I site many of my stories near my home—in or around Philadelphia, at the garden down the way, within the province of the four-cornered town, up and down the roads I've driven for nearly three-quarters of my life—she asked me to explain why.  She wanted, I think, to know what about this geography, this landscape inspires me.

I'm sure I didn't have an articulate answer.  Often, I don't.  I had, instead, all these images in my mind's eye—the slant of the sun, the black cows, the rows of unharvested corn, the pockets of color on the ridge at the Willows.  Today I went out and took a photo for Cat. 

This is it.

This is why.

This is because.