life v. art v. television soap opera

I love the way that peoples' lives have such great plots. It's true that a few people lead the lives that read like experimental novels, with a lot of imagery and wordplay mugging for the Super 8 camera where a decent thread of story might do nicely. By and large, though, people make satisfying cinema, endless epistolary novels of the heart and soul.

Sometimes one learns a new fact about a long-lost acquaintance and says "Interesting! indeed, fascinating! I did not see that one coming, but I would have if I watched even a fraction of The Lifetime Channel, in which things like this happen All The Time, and usually star Valerie Bertinelli, then I would have expected it!".

The problem with Art, for that matter, is that it is rarely as banal and cinemagraphic as Life. The camera really was a great invention, after all. Not to mention face paint.

good news for old friends

We had dinner tonight at a Mediterranean restaurant with our friends, who had good news to report all around--a new home in escrow, a new job for one of them, and a world of good things on the way. I particularly favor the restaurant, because it permits one to get a topping of cherry sauce upon one's saffron rice.

So many times paradise deferred is not paradise denied. It's not all off-track in this world--things can and do work out nicely a surprising amount of the time.

I worked very hard this week. I am glad the weekend is here.