Idle Thoughts

Aging is interesting. At the very least. Challenging and painful at times; but is that the worst?

Can’t do what I want to do, but I’m not certain what that is anymore. I’d like to write a book, but I can’t focus on what topic without gadding all over the place. So, I demur the book.

I would like to travel country lanes and stop at small town diners. I’d like to talk to the people there, but not at this very season; the elections are near, and I don’t want the conversation to be distorted. Maybe a few weeks after the mid-terms?

With interviews in mind, I’d like to report on them and ponder their meaning vis a vis current events. What is the temper of America? What is its dream? Is there a forward thrust of the people toward something that matters? Would that be the dream or a variant of it? Just wondering, you understand.

Contemplating days when our long-loved dog will no longer be with us. There are signs. She is irregular in both poop and pee. She eats irregularly, too. And she is slowly losing both her hearing and eyesight. Familiar people and smells perk her up. Routines do as well. She is alert but most often asleep. Comforting to us; hopefully to her. But when will there be a sudden gasp or rale and then nothing? It is a cruel thought. Quickly pushed away.

With each leaf fallen to earth fall is setting in. soon flurries will be upon the breeze. Flowers will be absent, and shrubs will catch our ready attention. Quick glances at surfaces – roadways and sidewalks – inform of safety; no ice to hinder movement. Or lead to injury.

I wonder if a relaxed salon of discussion would be productive. You know, the kinds of New York City through much of the 1800’s and 1900’s; and also, of France for hundreds of years, especially in Paris. Those settings welcomed people of differing views to talk about their ideas and how they meshed with others or messed with them!

Good natured discussion in which participants entertain each other with wit and serious thought; where history and facts are raised to inform conclusions. These were the hot spots of new ideas in government, economics, history and social sciences. Yes, even medical science was aided in such places. Sharing science and posing questions to research were often the center of discussion.

This reminds me of today with so much information pouring around each of us in an unending torrent of digital debris, we finally wonder what it all means. And then pose questions, logical and meaningful. These are the questions that press us forward to fuller understanding of the world’s meaning at any given moment.

We need such places and such discussions, today. They must strive to be friendly and civil, so we can hear each other. So, we can ponder the open questions and consider possible truths. We don’t know the truth, we discover it fresh each day if we are lucky.

And civil.

November 7, 2018