Breakfast conversation with Ed goes something like this: I'm wondering -- how do you govern, how do you lead in a country (indeed, in a world) where no matter what you do, or what the other candidate would have done, there will always be inequality, there will always be not only shades of truth floating around, but downright falsehoods coming in a steady stream from one side, and people, large swaths of people believing those false claims, and there will forever be someone doing better in life than you, and, too, suspicion and distrust of newcomers, and a belief that you are owed a better life than the one you have now. How do you deal with all that? (A question right up there with "how do you end a war so that neither side appears to have lost?")
This was our discussion over bakery goods from Madison Sourdough via Tati's.
And it is once again a late breakfast, because after taking care of the animals..
I went over to the pharmacy to wreck my gut yet again with antibiotics, much needed for my foot, but still, not appreciated by my good-bacteria hungry gut!
On the way back I picked up the pastries. Healthy eating? Saved for another day!
Ed bikes today. He doesn't want to, the weather is so dreary and cold, but he skipped last Wednesday and frankly, in November this is as good as it gets. Me, I fix dinner for the young family. And I put on my music playlist -- the one I call "Travel" because that is just about the only time I listen to playlists. And I dance. The cat named after my rhythmic movements (Dance!) freaks out and runs away. (She hates rapid motion.) The played list brings up I'm Yours (by Jason Mraz) and I think how much I've come to associate rather randomly heard songs with my best moments with Ed. I will forever hear La ou je t'emmenerai and think of driving with him from our rented rooms in Sorede to Franqui Beach. And I'm Yours? It was playing just once when he and I biked over to McFarland to get coffee. I must have been so happy at that moment because when I hear it now, I smile at the image of that coffee shop and us in it, in a flood of sunshine coming in through the large windows. Ed is completely a-musical, which is a good thing I suppose. Music doesn't move him one way or another. I live in a climate of calm. It rubs off!
[Still, I have musical memories. You do as well maybe? Not all are captured on my playlist, but some are! I hear Home by Vanessa Carlton and I remember listening to it the first time Ed went away sailing. I had a miserable ten days -- not because he was sailing, but because everything went wrong soon after he left, and then we argued big time over the phone -- him in Puerto Rico, me at the farmhouse. The only big argument of our life together. And yet, the song makes me remember how much I loved him then. And Mystery of Love -- one time I was hearing it at a daughter's house. My son-in-law said, almost under his breath -- that is the most perfect song. Since then, when I hear it (it's on my playlist), I think how much he must love my girl and it makes me smile. And Hey There Delilah -- listened to a lot when my youngest was in law school. On the way back from visits out east with her. And Maledetta Primavera -- a song that my older girl loved singing, especially in the car, on family road trips. Oh, that one in Massachussetts, to Cape Cod. And so many more! Do you see why I love tuning into my list when traveling? Memories come flying. It brings everyone close to me. It's like snuggling with an overstuffed teddybear.]
Okay, dinner.
Here they come. All well and happy.
At the kitchen table now. Do you remember when the sun was streaming onto the porch as we ate our Sunday meal? Ha! Not anymore!
I had kept my playlist going this evening. Almost by accident. And as the meal ended, and the songs played on, two of the little guys and their mom were moved to dance, and suddenly the kitchen was a place of music and movement and joy.
Such a good way to end the week!
Now comes a half week of calm, before everything gets tossed into the air again! It's going to be a very busy set of days weeks months! Are you yearning for posts on how to be bored without really trying? Come back in February!
With love...
