Pandora's Other Box

There are moments when words are not the solution. We can only hope that, in those moments, we know enough not to say anything foolish. Often, I truly understand that I am indeed blessed. This goes beyond my successful bout against cancer and the incredible places and people I have met over the years. Beyond unexplainable survival(s) at times when I was totally unprepared to face unexpected and considerable foes. Add to this all the minor and major mistakes made along the roads and detours life has steered me through. It really adds up to something much like a miracle. Today, at age 71, like many others I must work to meet my expenses. But, I am able to. And that’s a blessing too. For my work involves doing things I truly enjoy. Like doing the ESL classes. Teaching others to speak English so they can improve their lot and their families’ lot as well. Pretty much all of my students are Hispanic. Some with documents and full of ambition and some without documents and full of hope....

It’s about that time of the year when another 365 days of biological time-living have passed and I am compelled to sit, look at the computer’s blank page and let the moment wash over me, bringing forward all those semi-lost memories, languishing in the little reviewed drawers of my brain. Well, what’s left of it after 71 years of embattled endurance. A year ago yesterday marked the arrival my 70 th birthday. A benchmark of sorts. So I guess yesterday, if the numeral order is to be believed ( something I wish could be disproved occasionally) defined my 71 st birthday. Which, in sequence, actually means I am now living my 72 nd . Year… And, in turn, makes me the oldest member of my direct family’s oldest living generation. Hmmm… gets too complicated to look at the overall picture from that angle… lopsided. In any event, one more year has passed. I have not been very loyal to my blog in this time, relegating it to a some-when thing; only if the pang of peripheral writer’s guil...