HOW IT IS

 Last week was a good week as it clarified what the best of my new life could be like.

I had a mix of bad grief moments and great connection with friends.

I got called "exciting," "remarkable," and a "deep thinker" who encourages others to think deeply.  And I got to comfort someone who had experienced a recent loss and who also has a screwy family issue.

On Saturday I videocalled (Oi, we're "living in the future," as my dead-friend Mike used to say) with my friends Diana (morning) and David (evening), both of whom I love and it's always so nice to check in with them.

I got a bit of work done on the house, both by me and by a gal who stained my deck for $400 less than the blokes who did it a couple of years ago.

Yesterday, I met up with a high school buddy who was going through town to visit with one of her closest friends. We went to church together and then had coffee before she needed to move on.  It was very pleasant to talk with another child free person who has had a successful career and a somewhat complex personal life -- another person who loves opera and traveling (I was able to impress her with my tales of the Met and La Scala).

We had a great sermon yesterday focusing on food (because the Gospel was John 6:1-21). Tears just started running down my face because it made me think of Will. My friend understood. I was happy and sad at the same time.

I also got high and rewatched (for the umpteenth time) three of the Season 1 (1998-9) episodes of Midsomer Murders. Samsung freetv played the entire first season for binging purposes over the weekend. How many times have I seen Death of a Hollow Man?  This time I enjoyed especially the scenes outside the theatre, as I stood on that very square to take a picture of it.

Taken during my visit, May 29, 2024

Still from S1E3 Midsomer Murders, 1998

The real and the cinematic, the actual and the pretend, were never supremely clear for Will and I, we both enjoyed being inside the movie. When we were in Paris in 1997, he actually said that to me, that it was like being inside a French film.  That's one reason I was so very happy to be on my super-fans tour. Not only was I seeing beautiful countryside, but I was also being inside a movie.

Theologically, this connects to the Platonic concept of this world being a shadow of the real world of pure forms.

And as far as shadows are concerned, Sir John Nettles is one of my favorites.