"Everything leads us to here"

Good morning, Professora. I just finished up a movie that would have been good for you to use to teach French history: Marie Antoinette, with Tyrone Power and Norma Shearer. Grand old style MGM piece, one with tons of money poured into set and costume design. A cast of thousands. Opulent, gorgeous. Great stuff. Found it and a couple more films yesterday while I was in the city. My old friend The Snake Lady came along for the ride. It would have been fun if it hadn't been so serious. No matter. Came away with a mighty fine cookbook, too, a Diana Kennedy piece that I had been looking for a for a long time, Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico. Worn but serviceable.

Watching that movie this morning put me in the mood to work, to look ahead, to see what there is to see. One thing for sure, that period of French history had it's share of hard heartedness. But once you had your turn on the guillotine, well, they couldn't do anything else to you again. I think of life and how I got here, not so much Port Orchard but to the place were we "chat" here, where I share my thought and life and heart with you in data bits and "1"'s and zeros. I was asked yesterday how often I see you and well, how many times have we lucked out over the last year? Maybe a half dozen and that phone call? Mighty few "sitings" except for my words to you here.

And even these words are a truncated form of life. My friend The Snake Lady was really responsible for setting up this site. Well, to a point. If you recall she had called me on my "temple building" last summer and so I decided to take my writing to you elsewhere. This place has been fine for that. I've gotten to air out the satchel, have taken on some old thoughts, and through my writing helped to look at life anew. See where everything has taken me. And it's brought me to a place that seems less like a precipice than it does a launch-off spot. It feels less like when I took my one and only shot at sky diving and more like my one and only time at soaring. With skydiving, least ways, that first time, you're given a little push to get you out the door. Sensory overload, thank goodness for the static line. But with a glider you go up with a pilot, are pulled along on a tether, then they cut you loose. You go for miles on the air currents. Truly wonderful experience.

Right now I feel like the tether of my life has been cut and I am soaring. Not so much above life but with it, in among the currents, and because of that clarity I can see as far as I can see. I worry, as I always do, about finances and time passing and all that. But overall I feel weightlesss, well as weightless as that balsawood craft I soared in years ago. It takes an engine, a plane, a device to take you up, to give you the impetus to soar, to put you in a position to take flight. I feel that everything in my life that has led up to this, My Estranged One's departure, my mother's passing, our various decampments, my choices of places to live, my struggles with life in general, all of it has lead me to a place where a pure clarity of vision exists. For the first time in a long time things are very clear. And for that I am about as happy as a man can be.

So, go out and find that old copy of Marie Antoinette. Know that life can only be so hard. Good viewing for a Sunday evening. Good lessons all the way around. And if you can't find a copy let me know, you can always borrow mine.

Adios for the time being, Professora. Have a wonderful day!

Your WHMB