Questions and Answers

There are some events in life which can never be repeated or should only be repeated in the most pleasant of dreams.  Such an event, the memorial for Julian Samuel Stein, Jr., began at a few minutes after 4 PM, October 6^th, 2012 at the Maryland Historical Society one week ago today.

The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore

The auditorium of the society was almost filled as Vishwa and I walked in. We were ready to join the SRO corps that would undoubtedly soon form.  It was like entering the Metropolitan Opera at the final performance of the most highly revered tenor in the world and all seats were taken.   Luckily we saw our friend Betsy, Julian’s partner, near the front of the auditorium and as we wanted to be sure to greet her with loving hugs before the program began, we pushed our way through the not yet seated crowd.

We found Betsy and hugged, all of us a bit teary-eyed.  She sensed we were looking for seats and there, three seats down from where she was sitting in the front row were four empty chairs next to two of her close friends.

“Are two of these taken?” I asked.  “No, “ replied Betsy’s friend.

Betsy and Julian…enough said !

There we were in the front row for the event of a lifetime to hear about the events of a lifetime!

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Some people who have blogs are  good about posting things a lot, sometimes even everyday (many of those folks are paid by the Wall Street Journal, NY Times or CNN, of course, so it’s part of their multi-million dollar job description!).

I on the other hand have become more and more lax, not because I don’t have things to write about, but just because LIFE ,(not the late-great magazine), just keeps getting in the way and I can’t seem to push away those pesky everyday tasks to just sit down to do it.

Flying saucers? Huh?

I’m not a good to-do list maker other than a Post-it here and there that’s tossed once the task is done.  (I had a colleague once who festooned the dashboard of her car with Post-its to remind herself of many a daily task. Luckily they weren’t plastered all over the windshield too.)

Sometimes I write two or three things on a Post-it and once I get all of them done,  it’s a real coup.  I know the I-thing this or I-thing that is engineered to make life more manageable, but I’m not there yet.  I’m just as far as getting excited about my iPad, quite sacrilegious for a book  collector!  But how can you not be thrilled when in seconds you can be reading the first few pages of that 50 Shades pulp porn and not even have to let the person sitting next to you on the plane know about your journey to S&M fantasyland?  (No, I don’t  have a copy of any of the 3 volumes, either paperback or i-Padized.)

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