The Sun Is Back

You can be me, just for a moment. Look up at the tree. You are lying on your back on a bench in a park at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, about to do your required 20 crunches and 41 bicycle kicks (for a total of 61: one for each year). You see the dawn light breaking through the branches. You see--leaves! It is February, but the sap already knows to rise.

Thanks--you can go back to being you now. Have a mighty fine day.



Before you go maybe you'd like to see a waterfall. Z and I joined the Berkeley Path Wanderers for a hike into the hills yesterday. It gave me an inkling of what it could be like to be retired, free to go on little excursions, free to explore our city and any other cities that took our fancy. I get a frisson of pleasure just thinking about it. (In my journalism days I worked with a woman whose happiest career moment came when she was able to work that word into a story.)

Before the retirement comes the work, so I'm off to do more of it. I am proofreading a book that includes a CD-ROM listing every disease, dysfunction, and disablement known to the Social Security Administration. If you suffer from one of these, the SSA will give you money. Trust me, you'd rather not be eligible for a dime. Many of these conditions can be caused or at least terrifically exacerbated by smoking, drinking alcohol, or gaining excessive weight. Scary. Reading through the text is very depressing and is motivating me to finish up!