On solving challenges…Elieser races out of the trench of indecision with machine gun energy…rat a tat tat! Boom!

I remain underground, rolling bandages and adjusting my Red Cross apron and counting laces and boots, hoping it will all go away. There is no mustard gas, fortunately.

The battlefield clears and we wind up at our own version of the Treaty of Versailles…minus any economic fallout. There will be no Third Reich.

Time for dinner…

Now an official owner of an Iphone…an early anniversary gift from my Elieser.

I have been dragged into the world of technology with a rotary phone and a land line in one hand and a book of poetry in the other…sail on.

She kept reading and reading. It was the most sacred of escapes; an unquenchable stream of truth and beauty and human struggle to bring things back into balance.

She turned pages and knew once again; there was nothing new in the human experience. Every emotion she felt had been at one time felt by someone else in different rooms under different skies.

She calmed down, gathered her thoughts, lifted up the rich burden of life, and hoisting it full bellied onto her shoulders… determined to go on…

A monarchy is easier. High treason, I understand. Those who sailed, swam, ran or limped toward the new world; away from the past to the shining shores, shudder at any wishful mention of ‘the crown’.

I’m looking for Tocqueville’s America. Instead we are trapped in John Sloan’s painting ‘Election Night’; the rabble on the streets, the brawling and the noise, the rambling and loud debates. The bar is lower than it ever has been and I would love to sit on a cushion and shake my finger and drink my tea.

A monarchy is easier; certainly more elegant and would be preferable…for a day or two.