The Off to College Moon
Friday gratefuls: Ginny. Janice. Friends. Healing. My son. Seoah. Murdoch. A cool Mountain morning. Fall in the Sky as Great Sol’s angle changes. Elk Bulls clashing, ready for the rut. Bears a month or so away from hyperphagia. Mountain Streams at their shallowest points. Crowds from Denver, pre-Labor Day, at Upper and Lower Maxwell Falls. Story. Lake Evergreen. Paddleboarders. Kayakers. Canoeists. The Otherworld after the Jeffco 73 turnoff on Brook Forest Drive. My home world.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Seasonal change
Kavanah: Serenity Menucha
One brief shining: Sitting at an outdoor table at the Parkside with Alan and Joanne when a buzzing in my ear directs me to my phone, Evergreen Medical calling; Hello, Josh; Charlie, your PSA is .4; a bit of whiplash because it did not post on my Labcorps account and it had surprisingly and most thankfully gone down rather than up taking me out of the shortened life span version of my cancer.
Later in the day when I spoke with my son he said I looked more relaxed, healthy. Oh. Well. Could I have been more worried than I thought? It takes a worried man to sing the worried song. After all.
My chest had opened up, my head sat straighter on my shoulders. Ironically, knowledge taking back me to a welcome uncertainty about my future. No longer time limited, at least not with suggested parameters. Ye know not the day nor the hour. Back to that. Well, yes.
Why serenity has topped my intentions for the last week and still does today. The residue of the Pearl along with the blood draw on Tuesday made me stand in love on one foot and trying to absorb a sooner than imagined death on the other foot. Not a recipe for inner calm.
In this August 24 life I have passed through the waters guarded by Scylla and Charybdis, lashed to the mast of my trireme with wax blocking my ears. Removing the wax an act of bravery itself, but necessary. No wonder I looked healthier.
Just a moment: What happens now? The buzz after Biden’s abdication and the week of the Democratic National Convention has shaken the race, put the orange one on his back foot. May he stay there. Though. Suspect he won’t. His usual blend of bluster and anger and white grievance commingled with not well crafted outright lies will push him back to the headlines. At least for some of the time.
The question. Will he seem the smaller, meaner, unserious man that he really is or the norm-breaking, would be strongman idolized by so many who feel cheated out of their American dream? I hope Harris-Walz can keep the sad man behind blue eyes theme going. Frame the orange one as a pathetic loser not focused on freedom or liberty but on self-aggrandizement and bonus points for his billionaire buddies. If they can accomplish this, I don’t know how, then I believe they will be sworn in next January 20th while the red hatters (mad hatters?) foam and froth.