Two Things

I was running my hand through my hair the other day, as we all do, and found the soft spot in my skull where the doctors had gone in to close off the aneurysm in January. Maybe I'd found it before and forgotten -- I don't know. Instantly I was vulnerable again, balanced between life and no life, and I thought, "Wow, I was close." And now I'm beyond it and it feels mighty good.

Second thing -- time before last up at hospice, one of the residents was hungry and said he wanted to go to the kitchen. I asked, "Which kitchen, yours or the big one?" He said, "The big one." So I got down on my knees and helped him get his toes properly aligned in his clogs, boosted him up under his arms and then took him by the hand out into the hallway and walked down the hall that way, me holding his right hand, him holding on to the wall rail with his left hand and a similar thought -- "five months ago ago I was him, halting down a hallway, supporting myself on a rail and with a companion's hand." I felt at that moment like I was giving something back, paying down a debt.

Shakespeare in the Park

The play turns on a dime from tragedy through farce to comedy, and its end is visible for Acts and Acts, but this Winter's Tale at Shakespeare in the Park is very well performed and, mostly, it's grand just to sit in Central Park on a NYC summer night with your love and experience anew one of the great reasons for living here.