It’s another beautiful morning, a second day of sun and no rain. I’ve finished my conference call with my brother Jim and my sister Kay, and I’m about to head down and water the fig trees we planted. We’re looking forward to 3 weddings in the coming months and I’m determined to start doing water aerobics. Yes, you heard me right, there’s nothing I’d like better than dancing in a pool!
I started this day by listening to a podcast in the early morning light on our screened-in sleeping porch. NPR’s Snap Judgement is new to me, it’s kind of like Ira Glass’ This American Life, only it tells more stories, with extra “hip” music and is trying to reach a younger, more diverse audience than the usual white guys over 50. So it helps that the curator of Snap Judgement, Glynn Washington, is black. And now, I’m under his spell. http://snapjudgment.org
The theme was Isolation, and not to give anything away, we are taken down into a cave for months with a French geologist, and into the basement with a guy who is quarantined because his treatment for thyroid cancer has left him radioactive. But the most poignant story is about a priest who visits prisoners that the world has forgotten. And one thing he said struck a chord;
When hearts have no place to break…they become harder.
Then of course I had to check Twitter before writing and Joyce Carol Oates posted about an essay by Oliver Sacks on the joys of old age (no kidding), without a link, so I just had to Google it…http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-old-age-no-kidding.html?_r=0
“At nearly 80, with a scattering of medical and surgical problems, none disabling, I feel glad to be alive — “I’m glad I’m not dead!” sometimes bursts out of me when the weather is perfect. (This is in contrast to a story I heard from a friend who, walking with Samuel Beckett in Paris on a perfect spring morning, said to him, “Doesn’t a day like this make you glad to be alive?” to which Beckett answered, “I wouldn’t go as far as that.”)”
Feeling this holiday weekend, as I watched newly minted citizens take the Oath of Allegiance, barbequed with friends on our deck, and listened to a podcast on my iPhone, very grateful for this life. And still looking forward, as Sacks’ so eloquently said about his 80th, to my 65th birthday in September…even though I’ll be eligible for Medicare.
MountainMornings 