Plum Right

Just finished Janet Evanovich's twenty-first
Stephanie Plum Novel.  Nothing really new-- her heroine is again charmingly inept and hilariously funny as she works through the strange but somehow familiar absurdities of her mixed-up life.

Though she never changes, never draws big conclusions, I wondered what philosophy of life Stephanie might endorse?

I've come up with five basic tenants:


1. Disasters are temporary.  Incompetence just inconvenience.  Never Give Up.

2. Like you, everyone else is just stumbling through life.

3. Laugh often

4. Don't take yourself too seriously.

5. And if everything fails--eat a meatball sandwich, order out for pizza.

Checking My Balance

Tuesday’s child or Wednesday’s?

Well, one of them worked hard for living.

 

I did

though some days it didn’t seem so hard 

As the plastic chair supporting my rear

on the deck of this trailer park home

 

where I gaze above a laptop computer

to discover my account has been adjusted.

Above distant rooflines, within a sliver ocean view,

the splashing energy of a passing whale.

 

I am rich now.  Maybe I always was.

Just didn’t know where to look.

Addendum to Fisher King

Several days later I returned to that section of the coast. 

The tide was higher, throwing itself onto the beach with such force it seemed furious with everything terrestrial.

 

I’ve known people like that.  Some are no longer with us.

 

I used to believe low tides ideal for collecting rocks.

Not so.

 

When waves land hard and so far beyond their usual mark (mean tidal zone), they stir up everything in their wake.

 

Dodging waves on this now uncomfortably narrow strip of beach, I found some new stuff, rocks that, once polished, could look like nothing I’ve ever seen or done before.

 

Yeah, yeah, but did I find that “mother load”?

Well, I found smaller stones like it.
And once in a turbulent mixture water, air and light, I might have enjoyed a glimpse of it. 

But the answer is “no”.  I didn’t find it.

Not this time.