Left to my own devices

  "Be happy while you are living, for you're a long time dead."                                                                                          ---- Scottish proverb My dad died from pancreatic cancer 27 years ago today.  This year has been a bit different when thinking about his passing. It isn't because I miss him -- quite the opposite. It's because I realized, as the years have gone on, how I think about him less and less. Lewis is no longer present. That may sound like an obvious thing to take note of regarding someone who's been dead for almost three decades, but it's true that our deceased loves ones often continue to exist within our own psyche. We tend to think of them often, and it doesn't take much for their memories to rise to the surface.

Apropos of nothing, here are a few observations /opinions / things I've come to learn over the years.

"I could tell by the way you looked at him." A few weeks ago, Ashley & I saw a new foreign film, Touch , and it got me thinking about the past. The movie centers around an older man, Kristofer, who is making the journey from Iceland to the UK, right as the world is shutting down in March of 2020. He soldiers on, as he is on a major quest. He is on the cusp of being diagnosed with a serious illness and, as he and his medical professionals await confirmation, his doctor advises him to tie up any loose ends and take care of unfinished business. We follow Kristofer in the 'present day' of 2020, and then approximately 50 years in the past, as a college student studying in London. He is an aspirational youth, determined to buck the system that he has become so disillusioned with. He drops out of school. and takes a job working in a Japanese restaurant. There he falls in love with the owner's daughter, Miko, who is about his same age. Events happen, and they lose con