Mitzvah

I just read my post from last week and I don't even know what to think about what I was thinking. Rude phones and stowaways and banana muffins. That's pretty much the whole post. What? I mean, really. REALLY.

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Now I'm all business. I'm trying to improve my Excel skills, so I'm watching online videos and tutorials. My company offers free access to a training platform that used to be OK until it rebranded itself (well, you know what I mean) and now it's not so good. But the county library offers free membership to Lynda.com, so I'm going to try that, just as soon as I renew my long-expired library card.

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I'm going to Ireland in March. I'm kind of dreading the trip, but I'm sure that I'll reconcile myself to going, until I even begin to look forward to it a little bit; and then I'll be sad when it's over.

And that? That is my whole life, in one ridiculous sentence. Did you think that this post would be better than the last one? Think again, gentle reader. Think again.

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Friday: I worked all day, though I didn't finish anything, other than one newsletter article. But I have at least half a dozen very solid drafts that I'll be able to finish on another, more focused and less distracted day. I'm glad they caught the bomber; and I'm even gladder that he was apparently an incompetent bomber, having failed to actually blow anyone up.

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Saturday: I love it when a plan comes together. I went to the library this morning to renew my library card, and today just happened to be the day of the Friends of the Library Book Sale. Two birds, one stone. Six dollars, 11 books, including three that I'm especially excited about:

Unscientific Americans, Roz Chast. I am a huge fan of Roz Chast, and her writing is almost as good as her cartoons. If you haven't read her writing, then I really recommend Going into Town and Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant. This one is just cartoons, not stories, but I'm happy to add it to my little Roz Chast collection.

Speaking Freely: A Memoir, Nat Hentoff. This is an uncorrected proof, probably donated by a book reviewer. I admired Nat Hentoff for his fierce defense of free speech and his outspoken opposition to abortion, which cost him writing contracts and speaking engagements. I haven't read a lot of his work, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

Muriel Spark, The Biography, Martin Stannard. Muriel Spark is one of my top five favorite authors. She wrote an autobiography, Curriculum Vitae, which was criticized for being vague and incomplete and lacking in detail. This is exactly how I'd write my own autobiography. Writers get to decide how much or how little of their own lives they want to tell about in their writing. But according to the book jacket, she cooperated with Martin Stannard, sitting for many interviews and sharing her papers, so I don't feel that I'm intruding on her privacy by reading this. She obviously wanted it to be written; she just didn't want to write it herself.

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Our neighbor, who is crazy, is also an Orthodox Jew. My husband is a police officer, and like most police officers, he does occasional off-duty security work, including a regular Saturday morning gig at a local synagogue. Crazy neighbor came to the door on Sunday, to thank my husband for serving the Jewish community, and to express his sorrow over the four police officers who were shot in Pittsburgh.

Yes, he calls us at all hours, and he corners us to complain about other neighbors or the government or his ex-wife, and he takes a rather unconventional approach to pest control; but on a day when he'd have been completely justified in thinking only of himself and his own community, crazy neighbor took five minutes to express gratitude and concern for someone else. It's not all bad. Some people will keep trying, but they can't stamp out basic decency and kindness.