Sunday, April 26, 2026     

     I am rereading a book I read decades ago, Octavia Butler’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER.  I vaguely remember the plot. Yes, it is good.  Such a surprise to enjoy books from the past.

     I keep thinking of the last book SHATTERED, a memoir of a year in the author’s life of sudden permanent catastrophic disability. The author alternates between accepting and being angry with his new total paralysis. This weekend I feel anger and sadness with my body’s damage from the cancer treatments. No one’s at fault. I just want to be my old healthy self and that is not going to happen.

     We are watching another episode of THE CLOSER when I get a text from a friend about the shooting in Washington. For hours I watch the events on MS NOW as the politicians and security people, and the thousand distressed guests mingle the dining room. Yes a lone gunman did break through the security lines and was captured before he did too much damage.

     My roommate leaves the TV for her bedroom. My heroes are the many waiters who carefully clean up the dining room amidst the chaos. They quietly maneuver around the agitated guests and the police.