Perspective

Irony. The mountain of a man who was posting crazy numbers and lying like a rug on the timeshare tours has been in a moped accident. Last I heard was having his spleen removed. I wish him godspeed and am grateful I did not hit him.

Today a young man Sam has known his whole adult life is an the hospital, perhaps dying of lung cancer. He is 38. He has had mysterious symptoms. He cannot be moved to a hospital with experts. I saw him two weeks ago, bodysurfing and calling a surf contest at Banyans. He has the energy of Prometheus, gabbing, creating, bullshitting, energizing. It is unfathomable. Sam went tonight to visit him. And just called to say, as he is waiting, that another friend, the father of a close friend, a health nut, a jeweler, a waterman, has lost scary weight and is going by ambulance tonight to the hospital. He got married on Valentine's Day to a young woman, his daughter-in-law's cousin. He has been making, if I am to believe certain hints, my engagement ring.

I am home safe with our daughter, who is watching Cinderella. I never thought I would show her this, the whole Cinderella syndrome as it is, but she likes the animals. And it seems she will be slender and pretty, so I suppose it will not be destroying her self-worth, only warping her expectations on relationships. Luckily, she gets bored at the prince part.

We are wondering if she will play basketball. She is exhibiting a peculiar passion and talent for dribbling. Even a teacher at her preschool--not her own teacher--approached me today to comment on her amazing talent at dribbling, a very complex activity for a 3-year-old. At 2 1/2, our friend Maria, a high school basketball star, marveled as Kaikea sank basket after basket. Who knows? Sam has elite-level athleticism. I am not ungraceful, but it wouldn't come from me. Her great grandmother, my mother's mother, was a star athlete. So odd to watch what might come. My greatest prayer, or course, that she has the long life to see what she can be.