MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO
MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO
1. My stepson, Matthew, won another fencing tournament last week. He’s beenwinning a whole lot lately. When I asked him the other night if we will all be going to Rio in four years, he said “Maybe yes, maybe no.” If I am still blogging when the next summer Olympics comes around and you are still with me here, I’ll be sure to let you know.
2. My dear 69-year old friend Michael, who lost his job several months ago, is gainfully employed again, in a restaurant among people in their 20s.* At first, he felt sorry for himself. Now he is grateful he found work. SORRY, GRATEFUL. That’s the title of a Sondheim song. That’s all of us. Sorry, grateful. No?
3. Saw RUBY SPARKS and HOPE SPRINGS. Good. Both character-driven. Both have stuff to chew on. They’re the first movies we’ve seen since Woody Allen’s latest, TO ROME WITH LOVE and may be the only American movies I’ll see until Woody’s next one. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was on television the other night. No reason to say “they don’t make ’em like they used to.” You already know.
4. Off to Montauk now. It took 10 minutes to pack. No matter how long I stay at the beach I only need 10 to get ready. Maybe because I’m always ready for the beach. Required: a Philip Roth and classic I haven’t read, everything for swimming and for eating clams or lobster after, a legal pad, pen and laptop. If I blog about it, I’ll spare you photos and details of ocean walks and sunsets.**
5. No television there. We like it that way. No plans to watch the Republican Convention. I’m just not that into politicians. Where have you gone, Adlai Stevenson? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Hey, hey, hey.
6. LOVE ‘N STUFF is tons of fun. I love writing it. I love hearing from you. Your comments about what resonates—and doesn’t—matter. The unexpected is the ginchiest.*** Online and in life. Former students and people from my childhood are surfacing each week. Recently I heard from someone whom I knew before his BM.**** Talk about eye-openers and how our pasts shaped us. Talk about stuff to chew on. Maybe we can’t go home again. We can revisit it in new ways. But that, like Matthew’s future in fencing, is… as the man once said… a story for another time.
* agism in this country-disgusting
** and fish
*** Gidget’s word, not mine. Are you old enough to remember her (Sandra Dee)???
**** Bar Mitzvah
