Brought up in the annals of the hinterlands, they learned early how the cadence of nature may discompose society—  how tides dictated the fishing schedules, how storms disrupted order. It is the kind of eclectic knowledge that is gained from spending long summers between odd jobs and aimless wandering through fields that seemed to stretch toward something just out of reach. Following curiosity rather than curriculum brings a growing suspicion that the conventional paths laid out before us may lead somewhere we do not particularly want to go. The substitute is inevitably an apparent indifference alternated with intense focus.