lords of the ring

The Maya saw life as a cycle.  Birth and death were part of the same circle.  Like sunrise and sunset.

One merely reflected the other.

I am not certain how I think about that.  Even during my Harry Chapin moments.

But I do know how much I am enjoying life these days.  Despite my edgy comments.

I have spent the last two days with my friends Ken and Patti -- and their daughter Kimmy.  I have known Kimmy all of her seventeen years.  Ken and Patti I have known since law school -- almost forty years ago.

Patti's recent bout with liver cancer has focused our relationship a bit.  But I would have spent time with them on this trip without the intervention of the disease. 

After all, the two of them are among my closest friends.  Close enough that people often think Patti is my sister.  Even my maid in Mexico drew that conclusion.

This will not be my last trip with them.  In fact, we are planning a river cruise in France for 2014.

But we are treating this as a memory tour.  After all, selling my house is a big step for our relationship.  Even though I have been in Mexico for the past four years, the Salem house acted as a fallback refuge.  No longer.

And thus the stories flow.  How we all met.  My embarrassing Spoonerisms involving Chocolate Chip Chunk ice cream and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The series of women who have punctuated my life.  Our first cruise together.  The music nights out we enjoyed.

All of them adding up to circumstances that have helped make us who we are.  And I guess that is a variation of the Maya cycle.

Today Ken is driving me back to Salem -- to pick up the flat screen televsion I bought two years ago -- knowing full well it would never accompany me to Mexico. 

The trip will undoubtedly turn out to be one of those stories we will share years from now.

In another cycle.