Immeasurable haze

"Immeasurable haze:" is how Yvor Winters begins his poem, "To The Holy Spirit". I first encountered the poem in college in an anthology edited by Hayden Carruth.

After reading the poem, the Central Valley of California never looked the same again, and never fails to evoke new feelings, no matter how many trips (innumerable) I've made from LA to SF on Hwy. 5.  http"//www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/yvor-winters/to-the-holy-spirit/

Traveling yesterday on Hwy. 5 from deep in Southern California to San Francisco, weary of being in the basic black Chevrolet Impala rental car, pummelled by the Sirius radio featured in the rental car and all its choices--Elvis, a channel programmed by Bob Dylan, music from the Met, a live broadcast of Tiger Woods rolling in a 12-foot putt to win Jack Nicklaus' tournament in Ohio--we have to pull off the road for a few moments to stretch our legs and thus restore some balance between mind and body, somewhere between the exit for Lemore and the turn-off to Los Banos. Enter Winter's great poem.

The trip south to persuade Aunt Lois to come north with us for the summer was mission unaccomplished. After agreeing on Friday night, Lois disagreed on Saturday morning. She'll stay in Palm Desert where the temperature was 107 Friday when we arrived, and 102 when we departed on Sunday. She's 92 years old and with the temperature  greater than her age, we worry about her.

Lois was bound for church when we said our goodbyes Sunday. She's a Christian Scientist and the lesson sermon for the week--"God the Only Cause and Creator"--was one she didn't want to miss. Before we took off, Lois made sure we picked plenty of grapefruit and oranges from her trees to bring back with us to San Francisco.

Why is it so much clearer to see what other people should do, how they should live their lives and where, than it is to see what one should do with one's own life? We were so sure Aunt Lois would see that being in San Francisco, where it is cool and where she'd have access to so many more things than she has access to in Palm Desert, was best for her. She, however, feels that she already lives in paradise, however hot it might be, and has everything she wants and needs all around her, though she does talk about making trips to Brussels and Australia.