No.77. Desert Father. His soul felt cluttered. Ideas swarmed within him inchoate, seldom emerging as usable forms. He needed some kind of cleansing. The only plan he had—as impractical as most of his plans were—was to build himself a small high tower and, like the desert fathers of old, sit on it until he was visited by purification. His hero was the 5th century mystic, Saint Simeon the Stylite, who lived for 37 years atop a slim pillar in Syria. Just to insure the right amount of clarifying discomfort, he decided, as well, to incorporate into his tower-idea the Indian fakir’s infamous bed of nails. The site of his penance would thus be a small bed of nails raised high into the air. He had a great deal of trouble building it.