THE VAGABOND

Vag took a deep breath and let it out in a slow sigh. He closed the history text and pushed away the notebook. Those were the days, he thought. The Renaissance, the rebirth of an old culture and the birth of a new one; that was the time when he should have lived. He would certainly have been another Da Vinci, an artist at everything. He could see himself now; architect, inventor, poet--Vag leaned back perilously in his chair--the full man. What chance did he have today--the chair jerked forward again--in a regimented world where you had to stick in one rut till you died in it? Could anyone live the full life today? Vag sported, then blew his nose. He turned back to a course reading list in sociology: Mumford: the "Culture of Cities"--something about urban see, and architecture--must cover a pretty broad field--heard of him somewhere else-wrote that American lit book--and how about that one on science, "Technics and Civilization." Vag sat up straight. Here was the man be said couldn't exist today. And he'd written another book, too, Vag remembered, one that people discussed noisily and excitedly, something called "Faith for Living." which produced a lot of new ideas about the most familiar and important things in life and rediscovered a lot of old ones. Vag got up out of the chair and put on his jacket. He was going up to hear Lewis Mumford speaking in Emerson D at 8 this evening.