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"I told him that a man’s life is always dealing with permanence—that the most dangerous kind of irresponsibility is to think of your doings as temporary. That, anyhow, is what I’ve tried to keep before myself. What you do on the earth, the earth makes permanent.” Mat Feltner from Wendell Berry's A Place On Earth.

This is a weighty thing to say, it makes me heavy to think of it, yet, I feel I must agree with it and take upon myself this weight. I think it is key that he says "man's life." There is a difference when you are a child, but once you have crossed into adulthood, by age or progeny, then you move beyond the realm of the temporal ... your actions, your deeds, what you do in the land, what you fail to do has lasting effects. It is wise to consider. It is wise to be deliberate.

Mat goes on to apply this wisdom directly to his actions toward his own son who is missing in action in WWII. He is feeling the permanence of his fathering, knowing that he may never get the chance to tell his son one more thing or to admit regret or to apologize.

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