3.11.11

I thought to type up my current sentiment in a Facebook status… but it… well requires too many sentences.

Today was a day that illustrates yin and yang, black and white, bliss and sorrow… the absolute balance of the beauty and the ugly of life. 

Even in the Facebook fed post of my blog, I needn’t exhibit all the day’s details… but one can start with the obvious… it is a Friday. A Friday of my month of long weeks. That identity in and of itself is a major plus. This week has had an equal amount of smiles and petty agonies… but I’m glad to find myself at the eve of the weekend.

But I’m just going to discuss today before the last twenty minutes tick themselves into history.

It was gray and rainy all the day long – lest you be a reader of this who was outside of Massachusetts. It did not provide an easy impetus to get out of bed. But I did… and went off to the office to tackle another day of whatever…

Although, before that – over my English muffin with peanut butter, I discovered the ominous reality of what happened on the other side of the world. I experienced 9-11 that way – something that happened on the other side of an ocean – although this was with less of a personal connection. And… well, this is something handed to us by nature, not man… but it was still surreal and removed. It made me think of a few good, dear friends with whom I let myself lose touch in the last decade. I hope… oh dear God, I hope they are well and safe.

But the world keeps on spinning, even as it trembles. And the minutiae of the day must progress. So, in spite of that pang, I still had to figure out what a certificate of good standing is and how I acquire one in order to acquire a wine pouring license. I had to deal with ticket purchases, and the daily cluster of emails and voicemails.

But interspersed with that… internet skulking… which revealed the Smashwords giveaway this week has quintupled the ‘sales’ of my novel. I’m not going to make any money from this… but, golly, wow. It is something to know a bunch of strangers read the blurb about my electronic novel and decided to invest… well, time… in reading it. Maybe a day will come when this seems trivial, but even now, I click on my email and find a huge ego boost with each email notification. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

And somewhere in the midst of that… a thank you. A small thank you… but, appreciation… gosh… it means so much, even when it required so little effort. I am sipping the Malbec that was part of that demonstration right now… but… yeah, after some major bruises left by ingratitude for major things… it is a really happy pause when the positive manifests itself.

And then… of course… the day ends with Urban Improv. So much of my job is chasing down paperwork and silly bureaucracy. But… even if it leaves my fingers stained with the smell of pepperoni grease… there is so much in handing out pizza to our 4th graders. Seeing them all up on the stage singing the songs and making the signs. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Then I came home on that high and decided to clean the bathroom again… a bizarre dispersion of stress. Whatever. Now the Malbec… and the loquacious pondering of a few minor details of a day in the life.

A day that will be noted on our calendars (make what you will of the number 3-11-11). A day that had bad news… but proved even in that collective sigh of sadness, that there are some really… precious moments of living. Simple things that… help to make a little more sense of this senseless world.