Bai Ju was studying under Lao Dan.
One day he said, “I would like to receive
your permission to wander alone in the world.”

Lao Dan replied,
“Leave off.
Everywhere it is
just as it is here.”

But Bai Ju asked again and Lao Dan said,
“Where would you go first?”

“I will begin with Qi.”

When he reached the state of Qi,
he saw the body of an executed convict.
He raised the body and covered it with his court robes.
Then looking up to heaven he lamented,
   “My master, my Master! The world is suffering
   from great turbulence and you are one of the first
   to be afflicted. It is said, ‘Do not rob,’ ‘Do not kill.’
   but when honor or an dishonor have been delineated,
   we propagate these wrongdoings.
   When property and wealth have been amassed,
   we see how disputes arise.

   To promulgate what leads to wrongdoings,
   to amass what leads to dispute,
   to inflict distress and relentless suffering

And then to wish that men/women
comply with the ordinances
— how could this be realized?

Zhuangzi trans. by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Chapter 25 Zeyang

We discussed poverty, the six of us all good friends. To-be-poor is a physical and psychological experience. No one who hasn’t heard the growl of the wolf at the door knows anything at all about poverty. The causes of poverty are complicated, and I become disoriented in the forest of detail. After everyone has opined as they are inclined THIS aspect of the subject looms as speechless, as awful as encounter with the executed, lifeless body of someone convicted of a capital crime.

I read this excerpt from the Zhuangzi, I also thought of grad-school. That was over 40 years ago in my life. Bai Ju, a student, inquires of the department head about a study-abroad opportunity. Lao Dan, the department head and advisor observes – Bai Ju is unlikely to find conditions abroad to be different,…

Nevertheless study abroad has a certain allure.

So, Bai Ju is off for the state of Qi.

The quotation speaks for itself.

Yes, I have been to Atlantic City…

Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen, the Nebraska album, 1982