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11/6/01: Today I drove down to Lacey, near Olympia, and stopped in south Tacoma, in an area I used to work near when I worked at Western State Hospital. It had been interesting to be out and about there, as there were a lot of military personnel from the base and I was not used to seeing them. Today, as I stopped to use the McDonald's bathroom, a man was coming into the truck parked next to me. He was dressed in camouflage gear, with high top boots. In Snohomish County I might have thought he was a right-wing skin head type, but here I knew he was from the base, and I noted the cherub-like face, the youth that glowed. A reminder of something, once again, that I have learned over and over: how war kills such youthful fighters. It reminded me of my visit to the Normandy coast of France in 1978, of seeing the sea of white crosses at the military cemetery there, and noting with such deep sadness the inscriptions indicating birth/death dates, everyone being in their late teens primarily. The exuberance of youth, the immortality of teens, the youthful intensity of beliefs-- could we go to war if teens did not exist? If the adults themselves all had to go? Life continually gives us more to ponder, in her generosity.

11/12/01:   "Now five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old..."             Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

When I was young and growing up, I remember     thinking several times that I would likely live to     see the next century, the year 2000, and I                remember thinking that it was too bad I wasn't      born later in the 20th century because, as it was, I was going to be 46 when it turned the year 2000      and so I would be too old to enjoy the                    experience(!)-fascinating, eh?

              Happy Birthday To Me

11/15/01: At work everyone was assigned to new work groups and cubicles were also reassigned. Today we spoke of feeling lonely in the midst of others in cubicles, that we were no longer near or connected to those we had been. It reminded me of a quote from Lily Tomlin: "We are all in this alone." It is like being alone in a crowd, alone in a stadium.