It’s been a good week for reading. I’m about two-thirds of the way through Tombstone, picking up the pace in The Development of Mathematics, and I finished one biography of a mathematician (the charming and generous George Pólya) and started on another (the eccentric Paul Erdős). In Mathematician’s Delight I got right up to some problems I really wanted to take a crack at solving before every other deadline in the universe seemed to come crashing down upon me. My weekend was an attempt to meet as many of these deadlines as I could, and I hope that I did my best.
Now, here we are on the cusp of July — June always seems to pass in the blink of an eye — and with the new month will come a new set of priorities. Plan for a trip to Ohio and West Virginia and back again. Create a writing weekend. Donate a few carloads of items that I don’t need. Start working on my cardio. Reinvent my identity. Practice my Hebrew. Get my father’s photos scanned. Lay out another month of my bullet journal. Keep reading. Go to a local concert for the first time in about 18 months.
What did I actually do this weekend? Attend online services, exchange texts with my mother, drive my son to work, shop for groceries, attend my final Torah cantillation class, help to prep beef stew, do laundry, do dishes, pick up my son from work, fill the gas tank, shop for books, pick up some free custard, watch qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix, lay out several pages of the congregational newsletter, attend a retirement picnic, transfer a loaner car from one loanee to another, drive my son back to his father’s house, get pulled over by a deputy sheriff for non-display of plates, drive home, locate and install my front license plate, do more dishes, watch the Styrian Grand Prix. For some reason it does not seem like enough. I intended to relax on my birthday, but didn’t relax enough. I intended to get things done the next day, but didn’t accomplish enough.
What is enough, really? Do we ever catch up? Lately I’ve been chasing the goal but it’s tough to tell whether or not I’m making progress. Sometimes the proof is external and sometimes it’s internal. Externally, perhaps I did all of the things I could do. Internally it “hits different,” as my kids say.
This summer will be one of transition, for many people in my immediate circle. Transitions aren’t easy and we’ll need to find a way to show each other compassion and grace as we move through our changes. What can I say? Show your love to the people you love. Maybe that’s enough.
Knitwise, I haven’t been doing any Actual Knitting™ in the last week but I did come across a link to a free download for an Interweave e-book that contained two patterns I want to make. One is for a triangular shawl made with a bit of openwork but NO PURLING, and the other is for a scarf/stole with a simple lace panel, made with bulky yarn of which I seem to have a sufficient amount. So if I find the time to knit, I’ll be ready to cast on.
Chocolate Sheep 
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