What you are capable of

I congratulated AH today for the courage she showed in taking a new tack with her sister on the weekend. I am very proud of her and wish her all the best in a very challenging situation. While it is not up to her to solve her sister's problems - in fact she cannot - she is nonetheless uniquely placed with both the wherewithal and the motive to make a difference in her life, and of course in that of their mother as well. And it goes without saying that the real winner in the end is her, AK, when she realises what she is capable of.

I dropped my new shirts off at the dry cleaners this morning and learned that three
of them are so unique with custom buttons that they will not machine press them so
I have to pay $6.50 for hand pressing. I guess this is part of living the good
life but I have probably worn shirts which cost less than that to buy.

Dungeons & Dragons

I laughed out loud tonight when I read that my friend JK's nine-year old daughter E had started playing Dungeons and Dragons - I am not sure why I should be surprised to hear that because I started playing D&D at about nine years old, but it is nonetheless hard to believe that one's friends, and ones friends' children, are growing up.

I was equally delighted to read about her determination to raise her daughter as a citizen, and that she remained encouraged by the initial feedback. And I was grateful for her advice and insight to my own sh*t. It has been a struggle but I am happy to report that I have in fact broken through and am once again dealing with a half-full
glass. I feel like this is a familiar exercise, exorcising the demons of darkness
and lining up the stars, but each time it gets easier and I feel like I have more
of a framework on which to build the man I am determined to be. JK, much like many others, correctly pointed out that he is there, inside me, it has just taken me a long time to find him.