Work to Do

Languid. Summer, in effect, even if it is early May. An afternoon that seems mindless, even if it isn’t. Jane and I doing nothing much of anything. Lunch seeming like a major effort. And the livin’ is easy.

Bit of news, of course. I see it going something like this, the first email:

PAUL & JANE ARE GETTING MARRIED

Save the date: 28 July 2013 (in San Francisco)

Save the whales, while you’re at it.

Save yourself the trouble, if you live in the UK, because we’re there for three weeks in August.

All for love and love for all.

Jane & Paul

What do you think? I mean, when you come right down to it, the thing smacks of egalitarian intent. There’s a Paul & Jane in the first instance, and a Jane & Paul in the second. Isn’t that good? Doesn’t that bode well for the future? As for the future, boding and foreboding…well, it isn’t worth going there. Wives die. Husbands do too. A realization that must be at the heart of many a major life decision. Particularly this one. Seize the moment, catch the joy as it flies, and by the way, prepare to do some flying yourself. What the hell.

As for the tone of this announcement…. What is going on here? I mean, why not be straightforward? Sober, even. Why joke about? Because I am hoping for something that reflects the relationship. Jane takes life seriously, but doesn’t take herself seriously, at least not in a burdensome way. I aspire to something similar. And the livin’ is easy.

Fish are jumpin’, and 70,000 members of the National Rifle Association are higher than ever this week in Houston. What is going on here? Who are these people?

The strange truth is that I may know one or two of them. Whoever they are, the week has been a rousing one. NRA members were told that they have done everything imaginable to keep guns out of the wrong hands. The defeat of federal legislation to strengthen background checks of people purchasing firearms only confirms their rightness. Yes, there is more work to do, but the work done so far is admirable. Cause for celebration. And so on.

I have come to much the same conclusion. There is work to be done. Marriage, the languor of summer days, all of it drifts around my brain quite happily…until I remember what’s out there. Nuts with guns. Organized nuts with guns. The very thought is enough to wake one up. Stay tuned.

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