In a stroke of good fortune, this place, Pinehurst, happened to be located in a part of North Carolina known as the Sandhills, because underneath the grass everything was sand, not soil.

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One of the reasons why Plakias and other southern getaways have remained relatively immune from mass tourism is the terrific summer wind that roars through everything, pelting beach-goers with sand and whipping up whitecaps on the sea.

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For humans are merely one form among many, which the world produces over and over again, not only in everything that lives but also in everything that does not live, drawn in sand, stone, and water.

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With that idea in mind, I recommend two books about the essential role of price in capitalism: Lessons from a Road Warrior: How I fell off a horse, earned 15 million air miles, got sand in my shoes and learned how to invest by John Rutledge and The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity by Russell Roberts.

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