In the course on Aristotle, we are still trying to figure what happiness is, and what makes us happy. The conclusion still seems to be, we are about as happy as we let ourselves be. I knew that. And I do believe that our innate nature determines whether we are a glass half empty or a glass half full kind of person. But I also believe that we can work at changing our outlook on life - change the grooves in our brains, if you will - so that we are less negative and more positive. What can I say? Still an optimistic American, in spite of current circumstances.....
Friends from Vancouver, Lois and Alf, come to the Desert almost every year. They arrived on Wednesday, and came over on Thursday. We shared a nice bottle of wine here, and then had a lovely dinner at Yanni's, my new local favourite, a great Greek restaurant. Alf and Lois are not only great travelers, with lots of interesting tales to tell, but are also endlessly (it seems) fascinated by their friends' lives. In other words, there's never a shortage of conversation (the wine doesn't hurt....) And they so obviously love each other - after all these years - well, they are a pleasure to be around....
Friday sounded a different note. Two weeks before I arrived in the Desert, neighbor Bob died at 87. Until recently, he had been a young 87, and it was somehow shocking to find him gone. His wife Helga was expecting it (he had been going down hill for several months), but, after 60 odd years of marriage, well...... Bob wasn't a religious sort, but Helga held a Celebration of Life at a local club. Lovely, actually. About 70 people, open bar, lovely food, a slide show that didn't - for a change - go on too long, family and friends sharing funny stories at Bob's expense. I think he would have loved it. But once again, the whole affair demonstrated that you can never really know anyone. We were neighbors, on reasonably friendly terms, for ten years, and yet there were whole swaths of Bob's life about which I knew nothing....
So, that was the ending part. What about the new beginning part? Well, I mentioned some time ago that friend (from about 55 years ago) Alison had died. Through her, I met Michael (also about 55 years ago). I had seen his name floating around Facebook, but never made contact. Well, in the tooing and froing around Alison's death, he contacted me and suggested that after 53 years (our last known contact) we should probably see one another again. Since he was coming to the Desert for the winter (not usual for a Brooklyn boy, where Florida is more often the snow bird destination of choice...) - well, on Sunday, he came over to my house for brunch. (He called and asked me to go to a concert the week before, but I was already booked. So, he was already off to a good start. First of all, he likes live performance. And secondly, he was willing to expend some money, both excellent traits.)
Truth be told, if he would have passed me on the street, I wouldn't have recognized him - 53 years is, after all, a long time (I'm sure he wouldn't have recognized me either - I certainly wasn't blond then...). However, we didn't stop talking until three and a half hours later, and then only because I threw him out. It was great fun. And he further endeared himself to me by eating a second helping of my french toast and bacon. (When trying to determine what I would make, I asked whether he had any food issues; his reply was, yes, I like it too much. Another plus.) And he loved my juke box.
So, we caught up on 50 years (he said that the last time we saw each other, we were necking in a corner somewhere; I said I didn't remember that, but it certainly wasn't beyond the realm of the possible...) it went on that way, through marriages (both of ours), divorce (his), kid (his), and current affairs, and agreed that we would see each other again. Ergo, new beginnings..... ( thought it a bit rude to take a picture. Next time.... In short, not, I don't think relationship material, but friendship, certainly. And in this day and age, you can't have too many friends....
And, of course, books. Here too, a combination of old and new. In the old department, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here was front and center (without comment) at the library. I'd read it before, of course, but thought it deserved a re-read. It was set in the 30's and 40's, and talked about the election of a fascist president in the USA..... (speaking of which, didn't you love the judge's rebuke to Mr. T yesterday: "You are the President, not a king....") Lewis doesn't read as well as it did in the mid-20th century, but the warning is clear enough.....
Next up was a book by Cate Haste, a Brit, called Passionate Spirit, a biography of Alma Mahler. It wasn't very well written - Alma was described as "wailing" about every third sentence, and when she wasn't "wailing" she was "fuming". But it was interesting nonetheless. If was an interesting time, for one thing, Eastern Europe between 1879, when she was born, and the 1960's when she died. And she was fascinating, an anti-Semite who surrounded herself with Jews, married to Mahler, of course (although he had converted to Catholicism in order to be named head of the opera) and the great painter Oscar Kokoschka). She was muse to scores of others, and also married to Walter Gropius (later of Bauhaus fame) and the Jewish writer Franz Werfel. She was called the most beautiful girl in Vienna (if she was, the pictures in the book don't do her justice, and in any event, she was still attracting men's adoration when she was old and fat). And, of course, the politics of the time were fascinating, what with the fall of the Hapsburg Empire, the rise of Nazism and Fascism and Communism. And the book was a who's who of all the writers and painters and composers and conductors of the era, a surprising number of whom I was familiar with. So, a good read.
....followed by a trashy thriller, Tightrope, by Amanda Quick, a good read of a different sort....
And am now into a book called Mary B. by Katherine Chen, one of the endless literary spin-offs of the Pride and Prejudice story, from the point of view of Mary, the ugly sister. Just a few pages in, but I'm already hooked...... God, I love books..
Friends from Vancouver, Lois and Alf, come to the Desert almost every year. They arrived on Wednesday, and came over on Thursday. We shared a nice bottle of wine here, and then had a lovely dinner at Yanni's, my new local favourite, a great Greek restaurant. Alf and Lois are not only great travelers, with lots of interesting tales to tell, but are also endlessly (it seems) fascinated by their friends' lives. In other words, there's never a shortage of conversation (the wine doesn't hurt....) And they so obviously love each other - after all these years - well, they are a pleasure to be around....
Friday sounded a different note. Two weeks before I arrived in the Desert, neighbor Bob died at 87. Until recently, he had been a young 87, and it was somehow shocking to find him gone. His wife Helga was expecting it (he had been going down hill for several months), but, after 60 odd years of marriage, well...... Bob wasn't a religious sort, but Helga held a Celebration of Life at a local club. Lovely, actually. About 70 people, open bar, lovely food, a slide show that didn't - for a change - go on too long, family and friends sharing funny stories at Bob's expense. I think he would have loved it. But once again, the whole affair demonstrated that you can never really know anyone. We were neighbors, on reasonably friendly terms, for ten years, and yet there were whole swaths of Bob's life about which I knew nothing....
So, that was the ending part. What about the new beginning part? Well, I mentioned some time ago that friend (from about 55 years ago) Alison had died. Through her, I met Michael (also about 55 years ago). I had seen his name floating around Facebook, but never made contact. Well, in the tooing and froing around Alison's death, he contacted me and suggested that after 53 years (our last known contact) we should probably see one another again. Since he was coming to the Desert for the winter (not usual for a Brooklyn boy, where Florida is more often the snow bird destination of choice...) - well, on Sunday, he came over to my house for brunch. (He called and asked me to go to a concert the week before, but I was already booked. So, he was already off to a good start. First of all, he likes live performance. And secondly, he was willing to expend some money, both excellent traits.)
Truth be told, if he would have passed me on the street, I wouldn't have recognized him - 53 years is, after all, a long time (I'm sure he wouldn't have recognized me either - I certainly wasn't blond then...). However, we didn't stop talking until three and a half hours later, and then only because I threw him out. It was great fun. And he further endeared himself to me by eating a second helping of my french toast and bacon. (When trying to determine what I would make, I asked whether he had any food issues; his reply was, yes, I like it too much. Another plus.) And he loved my juke box.
So, we caught up on 50 years (he said that the last time we saw each other, we were necking in a corner somewhere; I said I didn't remember that, but it certainly wasn't beyond the realm of the possible...) it went on that way, through marriages (both of ours), divorce (his), kid (his), and current affairs, and agreed that we would see each other again. Ergo, new beginnings..... ( thought it a bit rude to take a picture. Next time.... In short, not, I don't think relationship material, but friendship, certainly. And in this day and age, you can't have too many friends....
And, of course, books. Here too, a combination of old and new. In the old department, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here was front and center (without comment) at the library. I'd read it before, of course, but thought it deserved a re-read. It was set in the 30's and 40's, and talked about the election of a fascist president in the USA..... (speaking of which, didn't you love the judge's rebuke to Mr. T yesterday: "You are the President, not a king....") Lewis doesn't read as well as it did in the mid-20th century, but the warning is clear enough.....
Next up was a book by Cate Haste, a Brit, called Passionate Spirit, a biography of Alma Mahler. It wasn't very well written - Alma was described as "wailing" about every third sentence, and when she wasn't "wailing" she was "fuming". But it was interesting nonetheless. If was an interesting time, for one thing, Eastern Europe between 1879, when she was born, and the 1960's when she died. And she was fascinating, an anti-Semite who surrounded herself with Jews, married to Mahler, of course (although he had converted to Catholicism in order to be named head of the opera) and the great painter Oscar Kokoschka). She was muse to scores of others, and also married to Walter Gropius (later of Bauhaus fame) and the Jewish writer Franz Werfel. She was called the most beautiful girl in Vienna (if she was, the pictures in the book don't do her justice, and in any event, she was still attracting men's adoration when she was old and fat). And, of course, the politics of the time were fascinating, what with the fall of the Hapsburg Empire, the rise of Nazism and Fascism and Communism. And the book was a who's who of all the writers and painters and composers and conductors of the era, a surprising number of whom I was familiar with. So, a good read.
....followed by a trashy thriller, Tightrope, by Amanda Quick, a good read of a different sort....
And am now into a book called Mary B. by Katherine Chen, one of the endless literary spin-offs of the Pride and Prejudice story, from the point of view of Mary, the ugly sister. Just a few pages in, but I'm already hooked...... God, I love books..
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