Uncancelled

Dear Readers,

I hope you are in good health and good spirits. I hope you’re engaging in meaningful and joyous activities in between washing hands, taking temperatures, and watching CNN.

The following are uncancelled joys here in addition to eating a lot of kale— cooking it a new way—and good home-cooked meals:

1. Walking along the Hudson River. The Statue of Liberty makes me think of the generations before us. I wish I knew about my grandparents’ early lives. I think about their journeys and arrivals here. I think about Don Corleone’s.

2. Laughing with my friend who calls moving her family to their Bridge Hampton house “going out east” because she doesn’t want to sound like a snot nose.

3. Watching and listening to Yo-Yo Ma on YouTube since seeing him with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos in a Beethoven concert March 8 a few days before Carnegie Hall closed.

4. Reading: my neighborhood library, the Jefferson Market, which closed March 13, sent a notice earlier that week that the book I’d reserved, “Life isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends” would be available through March 13. What luck! What a read! I loved hanging out with Mike Nichols, particularly during his time with Elaine May, “The Graduate” and “Angels in America.” I love what his friends—everyone was Mike Nichols’ friend—said about him, his work, intelligence, humor, and pain. I’m in the middle of “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean. So good.

5. Writing: I work at home and haven’t much changed my routine. Or my clothes.

6. During a fun Facetime yesterday, a family member said he had to go shower. Shower?

7. Family Facetimes/Family laughs-pure joy.

Link to Bach Cello Suite (Music after four second ad)

Stay in touch. Leave comments below. How are you doing? What are you reading? Who and what gives you pleasure? Have you also gone out east?

Peace and Love to All, Nancy