11/21/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Congratulations! You have now surpassed the US life expectancy by 5 years! That’s in chronological age. Have you computed your biological age? My guess is yours is about the same as mine. In other words, I am feeling old today & you seem quite chipper, even if you did confuse Britney for Taylor at the Turkey pardon yesterday.

At least you showed up! Yesterday I was 15 minutes late to a meeting in the AM & completely missed a meeting in the PM. I chalked it up to “absent-mindedness,” but this kind of “senior moment” is happening more often than I’d like leaving me feeling like my epigenetic clock is ticking much faster than yours.

            Since you did not have many mentions in my news sources, I ended up reading things that exacerbated the ennui that beset me when I noticed Outlook’s warning of an “overdue meeting.” In Ayana Mathis’ piece in the NYT, “Why do evil & suffering exist? Religion has one answer, literature another,” she ponders the question, “How do we navigate a world beset by dark forces, & what do we do in the face of the suffering they cause?” In the WP Anne Lamot grapples with the same conundrum & comments on being 69, noting, “the price of aging is high: constant aches, real pain & barely survivable losses. But each time my hip unseizes, it reminds me that this life is not going to go on forever, & that is what makes it so frigging precious.”

            Both pieces are reminders that the creative process enables us to persist & sometimes, even embrace life’s mysteries.

            Speaking of mysteries, what do you think will happen to Burma? According to my Friend, the junta could lose control of border regions which will be subsumed by China & India. Thailand may end up with a refugee crisis & the junta will maintain power in the cities. All we know for sure is that “this too shall pass” & things will eventually settle down. I hope that happens sooner rather than later.

            BYBS,