Back to the Road

Wow. Britain voted to leave the EU. Wow.
I wish I had the whole day to read the Internet. Wow.

Going to think about it constantly, with no knowledge whatsoever, as I rush around and shove everything back into the car and try not to leave this beautiful house with any reminiscence of our filthy feet and scattery ways.

My grandmother outdid herself in the matter of the tea party yesterday. Sixteen or seventeen people (I’m bad with numbers). Villeroy and Bosch Vieu Luxembourg china. Four or five kinds of tea sandwiches. More kinds of cookies that I could even take in. Groaning fruit platter. Enormous cake sitting in the middle of the table for the time when everyone had just emerged from the haze of food, several hours later. And then, when I thought certain I would never need to eat ever again, as the sun was thinking about setting, she filled the table again with two kinds of salad, ham, cold chicken, and bread. We had to practically push her into her bed or she would have kept feeding us all through the night. I felt like I was in My Family and Other Animals, or The Pickwick Papers.

The next stage is to drive north to Oregon, explaining to the children than Oregon, much like Mali, is a kind of Promised Land. It’s not just where young people go to retire, it’s not just the dream of the nineties, it’s stuffed to the gills with lovely people and beautiful scenery. I’m going to afflict the children with an over abundance of weepy nostalgia and lectures about the shortness of life and whatever else happens to be on my mind.

And believe me, there is plenty on my mind. I would love to say it all to you, but I have got to shove children into clothes and clothes into bags and bags into the car. Have a lovely Friday. And may God organize all our ways.