Sagan/Sartre

 In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other. - Carl Sagan

Hell is other people." - No Exit, Jean Paul Sartre

Nu? Which way do you swing? St. Augustine has a good one as well, one of my favorites. 

Two thieves on the cross. One was saved. Do not despair. One was damned. Do not presume. 

I enjoy contradictions. I don't presume. I don't despair. I pass this on.

Outside my window a three foot snowfall is gradually melting away. It was a third of the distance up the trunk of the maple tree planted when? That long ago? I'll need to trim the lower branch so as not to block the view of the creek, a clear panorama of kingfishers plunging straight down like feathered darts into the roil while cinnamon tufted flycatchers wheel about plucking gnats from mid air. We weathered the worst of winter so far, one nine hour blackout being the brunt of it. However, I think maybe worse than the actual blackout itself is the anticipation of one - Keep a flashlight within insta-grasp - Keep the fireplace friendly - Do not flush - Are the fire extinguishers where they ought to be? Where? Do you know how to use them? Will I freeze to death? Lots of rules to confront what could be an existential inconvenience or simply a few minutes without Mr. Coffee. 

We don't have a generator, so when a pile driving wind and heavy snow collude to pulverize branches and down power lines we can go black. And do. Mostly we don't stay that way more than a few hours because the emergency repair crews are excellent, however, when the dark suddenly swallows your world like a sinkhole and nothing, absolutely nothing, works, there isn't much one can do except sit on the sofa, stare into the fireplace, and hold hands until the light comes back. One could say, well, we've been married for damn near going on forty-five years, so nobody's tearing anybody's clothes off any more, so what's the big deal, but we're sitting there holding hands and it's quiet and that's the big deal. We didn't say much.  I don't know how long. We mostly sat there holding hands and staring into the fire.  The moment lasted until the lights came back, then lasted a bit more as they stayed on and as the relief set in.