Morning Stories

He's approaching the thirty-thousand-day mark. And that's a good thing in itself, because the days that got him here were well lived. Peter turns eighty today. But that's not really the story. Because ageing is something practically everything does without much effort.

So simple as this short word seems — its impact is extreme. Anyone who wants to say goodbye to someone — or has to — is closer to tears than to laughter. A person dear to your heart is setting off on a journey. That's a real cut into the comfortable routine of everyday life.

Love is flighty, most of all in its opening stage. Every now and then it remembers itself and goes flighty again. The flutter of butterflies in the belly. The flutter of knees. The fluttery liability of shared birth control.

“Of course I can shift into a lower gear.” Especially when you’re driving down a residential street. Going deep — depth — is a word and an action that has somehow slipped out of modern life. Probably somewhere into the deep end.

Stories are — as the very word suggests — the many different layers that come together over the course of a life. Shaping a life story. The story itself.

Wanderlust or Homesick? Anyone who has always lived behind the moon or under a rock won't be surprised by the state of the world today. Because they don't catch any of it. The news? A Canadian was behind the moon. But only briefly.

If a single word can set the entire arsenal of emotions spinning, then those few letters must be carrying an enormous payload of associations. When spring announces not only itself but is heralded by the writing and rhyming guild, many things begin to sprout anew.

When someone does business with the sick, something is wrong with the system. The association forced itself on me when I took the German word “Krankenkasse” — health insurance, literally “sick cash” — a little too literally to heart. Then I turned westward and noticed “Health Care” in Canada. Which translates, roughly, as “help for the ill.”

"So, Eve, how are you doing?" "Oh, thanks for asking. I think I'm doing well." "Eve — were you even asked?"