He was an older guy -- late '60s by the look of him. She was about the same. Dressed for a Sunday stroll, they were holding hands on a downtown street corner and waiting for a light to change.
A pesky breeze was cold, but the day was pretty to look at. Late winter sunlight made bold shadows on the pavement.
He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the temple. It was a small one, but more than a peck. She turned to smile up at him.
A matron in a passing car saw the exchange and beamed.
There are still nice people all around us.
*** ***
I enjoy college sports. The men's national basketball tournament is a special treat for me. The game at its best can have balletic grace.
But as I watch, I wonder: When do some of these young men become the preening thugs who are too plentiful in professional sports?
They start at an early age, I fear. In our culture, we teach 'em young that athletes are not subject to the same standards of behavior as the rest of us.
*** ***
My grandson just celebrated his third birthday. He is a precious child whose laughter gives me a stab of the sweetest heartache you can imagine.
The same is true of my granddaughter. She's just a little younger than he is.
Both my grandchildren have the bright, settled countenance of children who are well and skillfully loved. Yes, getting a good start in life takes a bit of luck, with mental and physical health and such. But beyond that is the particular blessing of kids who know that they are cherished in a proper way. You can see it, I think, in the way they bear themselves -- in their posture toward the world.
In this demeanor, my grandchildren remind me of another little boy who crosses my path from time to time. He's also about three. He is a bright-eyed, curious, chatty youngster. He radiates a feeling that his world makes sense, that he is happy and secure in it.
He breaks into a huge grin when he sees his parents approaching.
They are a lesbian couple.
Why not?
*** ***
Sen. John McCain is tetchy about the way he and Sarah Palin are portrayed in a new movie. It is said to be particularly hard on her.
He insists she was the "best qualified" person to be his running mate in the presidential election of 2008..
Reminds me of another writer's comment that McCain has become the crazy uncle in Washington's attic.
*** ***
Air travel is on my agenda this year. The prospect already has me in a bad mood. Flying nowadays is like getting mugged: They treat you badly and they take your money, too.
I can remember when airplanes flew on time. As a veteran consumer of the standard variety of goods and services, I can remember when the basic concept of customer service was alive outside the history books.
No more. Take those automated phone trees, for example. They are a bane (especially the ones featuring assurances that my phone call is important to the people who can't get around to answering it.) We undertook this week to redeem some of those bonus points the credit card companies are so proud of. The exercise eventually involved two telephone attempts, three emails, a bout of head-scratching, some helpless listening to recorded information we didn't want and -- finally -- conversations with people who read from a script. I have negotiated mortgages with less trouble.
Customer service has been significantly impeded by computers. All of us have waited, and waited, and waited, while some poor clerk at the other end of a commercial transaction said, "I'm sorry for the delay. Our computers have been very slow today."
Some days, mine is slow, too. It has a mind of its own. It is especially willful when the virus protection software takes control and grinds through an extended search for the latest mutations of electronic vermin.
The protection is beneficial, of course. I just don't like being bitch-slapped by a machine.
And so aging has given me one more opportunity to eat my words. I always swore I wouldn't be one of those fuddy-duddies who complain that things are not like they used to be.
But they're not.
And I don't like it.
So there.
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