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Complete this sentence: This sandwich could really use some …

Have you ever heard of a “Wish Sandwich?”

A Wish Sandwich is the kind of a sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you… WISH you had some MEAT!

 

What is your least favorite candy?

I like the way that this question is worded. It does not say, “What kind of candy do you not like?” That question would be very hard to answer. But no, this question asks for least favorite. That I can handle. I think that my least favorite candy is maybe banana-flavored candy. Or orange-rind candy when the rind taste is too strong. Or chocolate-covered ants.

What sign are you? Do you believe in astrology?

I am a Cancer. Which sounds really bad. Maybe that is why I do not dig astrology. When I was at university and taking my earliest psychology courses, one professor made a huge deal about saying, “Look kids – psychology is not astrology! Astrology is whackadoodle, and psychology is SCIENCE.” Okay, maybe he did not say whackadoodle. But he did perform a little exercise where he handed our horoscopes to the class, cautioning us not to show our horoscope to anyone else, and then took a survey of how many people felt like their horoscope decently described them and was related to events in their life. An overwhelming majority answered favorably. Yes, this horoscope is pretty spot-on for me. Then he said, “So that would make you think that astrology had some validity, wouldn’t it? But HA! All of the horoscopes which I passed out are the SAME! You see, they are just vague enough and cleverly enough worded flapapoopy that they draw you in!” Long story short, this is probably another reason for my profound skepticism about astrology.

There is one astrological phenomenon which I find compelling, and that is the ‘Saturn Year.” From what I understand, every 27 years, Saturn is in the same position it was when one was born. Now, the character of Saturn is taciturn and fatherly, sort of, and the cycles correspond with becoming a father (age 27), becoming a grandfather (54) and a great-grandfather and so on. I like that. It’s neat.

I do not disparage those who do dig astrology. This is because I am a strong believer that whatever works for people and helps them think about things and gets them through the harsh weirdness of life… has value. What is truth? The best we’ve got is theories which haven’t been disproved yet and a sort of received group consensus about what is true and what is real and what has happened and is happening. Right?

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week?

Well, I lost a friend this past week. Fred. He was in his mid-eighties, and everybody saw it coming. Still – a heartbreaking loss – especially because though we were very close years back, I had not managed to make the long trip to go visit him in the last 10 years of his life, to sit again by his woodstove and talk.

What’s to appreciate about this? Well, for one thing, the way I got the news was good. A dear friend, the man who introduced me to Fred in the first place, emailed me some lines of a Longfellow poem out of the blue:

Lives of great men all remind us,

We can make our lives sublime;

And, departing, leave behind us,

Footprints in the sands of Time. 

 

Footprints that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn, and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again. 

Reading these lines, I knew that Fred had passed.

I appreciate having had him in my life.

It makes me smile.