There’s a passage in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony which goes
from dark brooding to sublime sunshine in only a few measures. It took longer
and worked just the opposite for me last evening.
The sublime? This one is easy. It was enjoying dinner with
one of my favorite couples, Brenda and Troy Galloway down from Bentonville, Arkansas.
Yes, that’s where Walmart makes its headquarters, and Troy is Community
Development director there. He is also a Brigadier General in the Army National
Guard. Brenda serves as the official version of a truly gracious All-American.
One of their daughters just graduated from West Point and the other will soon
enter her second year at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
The very model of a modern flawless family? “Pert near,” as
we say in South Arkansas. I’ve always been lucky with friends.
As I say, it was a most pleasant evening marred only by the
fact that my Brenda couldn’t join us because of caretaking duties. She gets her
turn soon when she flies to Texas for a Don Henley concert while I assume the
homecare role.
The dismal? Imagine my disappointment when, after such
delightful evening, I awoke after midnight experiencing the now-familiar pain
and nausea that accompany the passage of a kidney stone.
Yikes!
Four hours later, the pain left as suddenly as it had come. I
now have a souvenir to remind me that things can, and do, shift back and forth between
the sublime and the dismal, sometimes quite rapidly. The trick is to accept both and just hang the
hell on.
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| And dance whenever, and wherever, you can. |
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