Being Present. David Kundtz

      Pablo Picasso said:

       It takes a long time to become young.

      And Mae West added:

       You're never too old to become younger.

      Is youth mostly a state of mind—you're only as old as you feel?

      I think the answer to that is yes and no.

      Your yeses and noes?

      March 31

       Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

      FRANZ KAFKA

      So there's old and there's “old.” How do you make the distinction?

      Still want to see beauty?

      Of course you do!

      Goodbye, March, and on to April.

      April

      Relationships and Sex

      April 1

       Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.

      CHARLES LAMB

      Fools. Suffer them gladly? Avoid them as much as possible? Occasionally join them?

      In any event, please, let's not lose the grace to laugh at ourselves.

      April 2

      This is from Walt Whitman's “To You.”

       Let us two walk together aside from the rest;

       Now we are together privately . . .

       Come! Tell me the whole story,

       Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife, husband, or physician.

      Intimacy.

      It brings you into the here and now, perhaps like nothing else.

      There are many ways to create intimacy, like sharing a secret.

      Think of other ways.

      April 3

       Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.

      TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

      Ah, friends! In so many ways they make us who we are.

      And of course, we in some way make them who they are.

      Such responsibilities.

      Such opportunities.

      April 4

       We are all born sexual creatures, thank God, but it's a pity so many people despise and crush this natural gift.

      MARILYN MONROE

      What most strikes me about these words is the source—a national sex symbol.

      But of course, after the “despising” and the “crushing” she was, in the end, just Norma Jean, like you and me.

      So, no despising, no crushing, please.

      April 5

       The weather here is windy, balmy, sometimes wet. Desert springtime, with flowers popping up all over the place, trees leafing out, streams gushing down from the mountains. Great time of year for hiking, camping, exploring, sleeping under the new moon and the old stars. At dawn and at evening we hear the coyotes howling with excitement—mating season.